The focus of this paper is on improving the measurement of test anxiety. Background information is given about the role of motivation and the importance of testing. The present research is directed at developing a shorter, more reliable and valid measure of test anxiety, thus furthering the predictive, diagnostic, and test program uses of test…

The Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) gain statistic is examined, and considerations for its interpretation are highlighted. The NCE gain is made up of an observed and an expected part. The observed score is the posttest result. The expected score can never be observed nor verified for any of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS) models;…

Prompted by the need to develop improved tools for describing and assessing teachers' skills in teaching reading, a study was undertaken to examine the effectiveness of a system for classifying and tallying teacher-pupil verbal interaction during classroom instruction. Specifically, the study investigated the extent of agreement among college…

The standardized IQ tests which are in use in the schools are scientifically and pedagogically without merit. The construct "intelligence" is a hypothetical notion whose valid expression has yet to be born. IQ tests and the construct of intelligence can be discarded at present, and teaching strategies would be unaffected. To successful teachers…

Research on selective attention in learning disabled (LD) children is reviewed, and a study comparing the selective attention performance of 60 7-and 12-year-old LD and normal children to visual and auditory stimuli is reported. Each S was tested for focal and incidental memory individually in either the auditory or visual mode of stimulus…

The construction of tests of oral competence in a foreign language requires consideration of several factors. The face validity of the test, or the degree to which students feel they are performing a real communicative act, is illustrated with a number of model testing situations. Content validity, or the ability of a test to measure what has been…

The purpose of this guide is to provide a short, ready source of information about the process and problems of the diagnostic assessment of preschool children. Formal test instruments frequently used in the assessment process are listed by category. Detailed discussions of the tests and useful information the classroom teacher can gain from the…

A need existed for instruments to measure status isomorphs for either income or political influence in the process of status attainment. To provide a base on which to build further work, instruments were developed in this project by which to measure youth's aspirations for and their significant others' expectations for the youth's future levels of…

The tenability of the equipercentile growth assumption was investigated. This assumption is the basis of the norm referenced evaluation model (Model A) for Title I program evaluations, and supposes that a cohort of students, given no special educational intervention, will maintain the same percentile rank over the course of a school year, as…

Although this report is several years old, it explores test development in another country, specifically the Netherlands, using American-developed and normed-instruments. The development of vocational maturity tests and the adaptation of Crites' Vocational Developmental Inventory (VDI), Super's Career Development Inventory (CDI) and Westbrook's…

The Young Children's Self-Concept Scale, a 40-item revision of the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale, was designed specifically for young children. Its validity was investigated by comparing self concept scores to teachers' ratings of self concept. The sample included twenty teachers and 459 students in grades 1-4. Factor analyses were…

The degree of agreement between the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personality Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) in assigning sex role categories was investigated by administering both instruments to undergraduate education majors. As a result of scoring, subjects were classified as androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated. It was…

This document is part of a series of chapters described in SO 011 759. Addressing the problems of studying change and the change process, the report argues that sociologists should study coupled changes in qualitative and quantitative outcomes (e.g., marital status and earnings). The author presents a model for sociological studies of change in…

This document is part of a series of chapters described in SO 011 759. The chapter examines the merits of four estimators in the causal analysis of event-histories (data giving the number, timing, and sequence of changes in a categorical dependent variable). The four procedures are ordinary least squares, Kaplan-Meier least squares, maximum…

The learning module described is for elementary or secondary level teachers who wish to improve their understanding of the meaning of test reliability and validity. The contents of the module are outlined, and activities and resources involved in its use are described. Ordering information on materials is provided, and a critique of the module is…