The author points out the technical shortcomings inherent in traditional examinations designed to sort students and outlines more useful testing alternatives. He feels that, unfortunately, the Assessment of Performance Unit will opt for the traditional style of testing, in the name of "maintaining standards." (SJL)

The author critiques the objective measurement movement, particularly the Rasch model, as misguided and overly simplistic. (SJL)

The Sarason Test Anxiety Scale was administered to students immediately after a course examination and to other students after a regular class period. A significant relationship between test anxiety and examination scores was obtained for the former group, and no significant relationship was found when intelligence was partialed out. (Author)

Testing of 4,899 freshmen in the Massachusetts State College System using the system's domain-referenced Mathematics Placement Test suggests that male/female differences in mathematical ability have been exaggerated. (WD)

Two senior GCE examiners re-marked photocopies of the same 200 GCE examination scripts, half still containing the marks and comments of the original examiners and half with these markings removed. Removing previous markings made a considerable difference to the extent of agreement between these sets of marks. (Editor/SJL)

This paper makes a start in the search for a fair test of prelingually deaf children's short-term visual memory ability by exploring the coding problems presented to them by the traditional digit-span test. It suggests that more research be devoted to the problem of stimulus-response compatibility. (Suthor/SJL)

The article examines problems which teachers (particularly in preschool programs) have encountered in using behavioral checklists as a basis for curriculum planning. (SBH)

The essay focuses on the interactive nature of the testing situation, calling attention to the need to examine factors specific to both tests and test takers (specifically the aurally handicapped) when assessing information validity. (SBH)

The practice of evaluating certain special education tests in terms of traditional test evaluation procedures appears inconsistent with observations that these tests are often so closely tied to instructional procedures that they are not separable in practice. (Author)

Cautions against a statewide proficiency test based on the author's experience as a high school English teacher with the Michigan High School Proficiency Test. Discusses how, while meant to foster accountability, rigor, and standards, the test instead creates panic, uniformity, and a subversion of sound language arts practice. Discusses how this…

Designed to monitor school accountability, KIRIS (Kentucky Instructional Results Information System) offers a powerful lesson about how high-stakes accountability systems can distort and undermine original visions for effective curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. Changes have been influenced by several interconnected elements:…

Problems in the use of one-time external examiners to assess nursing students in clinical practice include overemphasis on individuals, lack of criterion referencing, input of clinical staff, halo effect, and cost. Continuous assessment, appropriately recorded, may be more satisfactory. (SK)

Multidimensional creativity tests are more cost-effective than expert opinion in predicting creative thinking. Torrance (1966) delineated five purposes for using creativity tests: to promote understanding of the human mind, assist development of individualized instruction, provide additional information for remedial and psychotherapeutic programs,…

Given that competition can motivate students to perform better on high-stakes tests, this article ponders what might be done to help students take the relatively low-stakes National Assessment of Educational Progress tests more seriously. So far, offering intrinsic and extrinsic rewards has yielded mixed or questionable results. (MLH)