A test development plan is described to evaluate police enrolled in the law enforcement basic training course developed by California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). Some general test methodologies are discussed: performance tests, knowledge tests, and situational tests, including role playing simulations and…

Since 1906, hundreds of thousands of Alberta, Canada secondary school students have taken some form of provincially set and scored examinations. The grade levels of students required to write such examinations have changed several times, and tests have involved formats which included various combinations of essay, short answer, matching, and…

Research on the comparative utility of varying numbers of rating statements per set--using an external criterion of recognition of rater profiles for evaluating "goodness" of the sets--was conducted on 132 noncommissioned Air Force officers. Groups of subjects rated groups of their peers on 20 factors, on a subset of 10 factors, and on a…

The conference panels were organized around three topics: (1) influences of cultural background on test performance; (2) uses and limitations of factor analysis in psychological research; and (3) information which should be provided by test publishers and testing agencies on the validity and use of their tests. Panelists for the first session…

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development and validation of the Social Problem Situation Analysis Measure (SPSAM), a measure of the ways in which children understand and attempt to resolve problematic social situations. The SPSAM is an assessment procedure in which children are shown cards depicting sequences of unfolding action in…

The Pre-Reading Assessment Inventory (PRAI) was designed to fill a need for a wide-range, individually administered diagnostic test of a child's prereading skills (especially auditory blending and segmenting), knowledge, encoding and decoding strategies, and understandings about the reading task. The test development was based upon the research…

Tailored testing procedures for achievement testing were applied in a situation that failed to meet some of the specifications generally considered to be necessary for tailored testing. Discrepancies from the appropriate conditions included the use of small samples for calibrating items, and the use of an item pool that was not designed to be…

Since their beginning, intelligence tests have favored the higher social classes. Despite federal mandates to the contrary, bias in assessment is likely to remain a problem. Claims of test bias can be categorized as popular (naive); clinical (intuitive); statistical (predictive); and psychometric (construct and content). A literature review has…

A project was designed to develop a methodology to identify, select, and disseminate information on innovations in occupational education programs of Oregon community colleges that were developed and implemented without the use of vocational research and exemplary fundings. A methodology for identifying, selecting, and disseminating information…

Using 857 male National Merit Finalists and Commended Students, scales to predict 1st year college grades and science, writing, art, music, speech, and leadership achievement were developed by analysis of 906 pre-college questionnaire items. Two item analysis strategies were used: responses of achieving subjects (S's) and general samples of…

Three assessment instruments for disturbed children were developed: a 50-item behavior checklist which functioned as a screening device; a 124-item behavior rating scale which provided frequency measures on indices of the teacher's reaction and response to exhibited behaviors; and a behavioral observation form which recorded task-oriented behavior…

This is the second of two volumes developed by Project CONNECT in order to enable local program personnel to determine the appropriateness of a test for a particular child. For 71 preschool tests the following information is presented, when available: title, whether the test is for screening or verification, bibliographic information, descriptive…

The Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) contains 100 items and 12 scales designed to assess self concept in three areas: total self esteem, self-criticism, and self-consistency. One hundred and seventeen females and three males, 75% of whom were black, attending a Work Incentive training program were administered the TSCS to examine its construct…

The purpose of the Developmental Record Research Project was to construct an infant and child development record which could be used by paraprofessionals and those without training in test administration to monitor the developmental progress of children from birth to age 5. The project method, described in detail in this report, involved (1)…

This amicus curiae was filed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the case of the United States of America and South Carolina Education Association v. South Carolina, which involved the validity of South Carolina's use of the National Teacher Examinations (NTE). The NTE, a battery of achievement tests designed to measure the academic…