Conditions are specified under which classroom organization during instruction produces greater or lesser differentiation between performance levels of minority and non-minority students. This study examines within-classroom differentiation along ethnic lines under different organizational conditions. Standardized tests are sensitive to ethnic…

Official recognition of Black English as a dialect has implications for all public school systems that have minority enrollments. The Ann Arbor decision points to changes that should be made in teacher and institutional attitudes and in the administration and interpretation of standardized tests. (SK)

Evaluates the Teaching Information Processing System (TIPS), which utilizes frequent testing over course units in an undergraduate psychology course. It is not necessary for students to demonstrate mastery before moving to new material, no proctoring is required, and self-pacing is eliminated. Students indicate positive attitudes about TIPS and…

Focuses on objective techniques, a powerful and long-run force in educational assessment. But how successful have individual objective techniques been? This question must be answered for each test. Includes brief reference to an evaluation of one instrument. (Author)

The role of bilingualism in reading difficulties is explored in the areas of: categories and variations in bilingualism; misinterpretation of standardized reading test results; and diagnostic-prescriptive issues. Particular case studies are presented. (JN)

Pretest and posttest measures of reading were obtained for two groups of learning disabled elementary students for 2 years. The argument was made that based on reliability considerations, practical issues, and ethical concerns, teachers might be better off to opt for the direct approach to evaluating their reading programs. For related information…

A survey of problems in assessment and examinations in modern languages is offered, focusing in part on lack of consensus among teachers on relative weighting of qualities sought in student answers. Developments in standardized examinations are noted. (MSE)

The validity of an examination of knowledge in the medical sciences was assessed. Scores in clinical medicine categories and total score of the Quarterly Profile Examination were correlated with corresponding scores on the Part II examination of the National Board of Medical Examiners for three different examination dates. (Author/CTM)

A report from the Committee R on Government Relations of the American Association of University Professors is presented. The Department of Education, federal budgets, reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, intelligence legislation, truth-in-testing legislation, amending the National Labor Relations Act, and the presidential election of 1980…

Summarizing research on standardized tests in the United States, the author identifies three historical rationales for such testing and explores current attitudes toward and use of test results. (WD)

Undergraduate performance and standardized test scores were correlated with dental school performance for 131 members of nine Harvard School of Dental Medicine classes to determine the predictive validity of the earlier variables. The only significant positive correlation was of the Dental Admission Test and dental National Board Examination, part…

The investigation, which involved 55 learning disabled and 54 normal children (mean age seven years), was designed to test the hypothesis that differences between these groups on tests of perceptual functioning are not educationally significant. (Author/SBH)

Never has any study received more national attention than that conducted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The study was directed to determine why SAT scores in high schools throughout the country either remained unchanged or improved since 1973. The author disputes this study. (Author/CMG)

A comparative assessment of eight normal and eight psychotic children in a stimulus generalization paradigm using simple and complex figures. Six of the subjects fulfilled the criteria for infantile autism. (CM)