Effective writing assessment involves judging how well a writer is encouraged by the classroom's social context to pull together ideas and to bring experience to bear on abstractions. Four main points can be made to justify this view. First, assessment by standardized test determines a teach-and-test model of instruction. But a curriculum that…

A proposal to institute "a common test in the academic competencies" of English and mathematics as an admission requirement for all Nova Scotian universities was announced by the Royal Commission on Post-Secondary Education in 1985. The commission viewed writing proficiency as an innate ability, independent of learning, environment,…

This study examines the differences of approaches to second language testing in West Germany in regard to linguistic bases, pedagogical aims, and the desired degree of standardization and empirical quality control. One approach demands a curriculum-integrated diagnosis of language development aiming at a highly differentiated description of the…

Seven schools that have re-evaluated their needs for standardized college admissions examinations were studied to explore their admissions and innovative testing policies. The schools include: (1) Bates College in Lewiston, Maine; (2) Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine; (3) Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Cambridge,…

Uses of the variety of scores generated by standardized achievement tests are discussed. Desirable characteristics of scales, raw score scales, percent of correct items, percentile ranks, grade equivalents, normal curve equivalents, and scale scores are considered. The various meanings and purposes of each type of score are discussed. It is…

This book was designed as an assessment of standardized testing and its alternatives at the secondary school level. More specifically, a framework for thinking systematically and creatively about assessment, a review of the uses and limitations of standardized tests of general achievement, and descriptions of several methods that may offer more…

A confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the respective viability of factor structure models for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) standardization data. The traditional verbal-performance split was compared to an alternative model proposed by Gutkin, Reynolds and Galvin. The confirmatory analysis indicated that the…

A study was conducted at Florissant Valley Community College (FVCC) to compare three standardized tests--the Iowa Silent Reading Test (ISRT), the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT), and the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT)--for use in assessing student reading skills. The study population of 402 students included 216 students who agreed to…

The California Achievement Test was administered to the students of the Mesa Public Schools in April, 1981, and again in April, 1982. This state-mandated test is administered to all students in grades 1 through 12. Although this report is directed toward the performance of Mesa students at the elementary level, a general overview of the…

A study was conducted to determine the effects of exposure to the topics included on the comprehension subtest of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (ND), Form F, on college freshmen's performance on the test. In addition, the study investigated whether those students with background information would indicate their awareness of this knowledge on a…

Four research papers on the evaluation of the Utah State Department of Employment Security's (USES's) General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) for the deaf are presented. The studies were conducted by the test research staff of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina from 1970 to 1979. The studies contain not only the analyses on which…

A survey was conducted of a sample of 716 well-qualified students who sent their American College Testing Program (ACT) scores to the University of Michigan but subsequently did not apply for admission. Telephone interviews resulted in 574 completed interviews, for an 80% response rate. The interview instrument elicited information regarding the…

To study the relationship between inferences made on standardized reading tests and item difficulty, 50 items on the reading comprehension section of the Metropolitan Achievement Test were analyzed independently in this study by two raters using four general categories of inferences: (1) reference inferences, (2) between proposition inferences,…

The Effective Schools Pilot Project, conceived in fall 1983, was designed to improve selected schools by focusing resources to assist six elementary schools in developing strategies for self-assessment and renewal through participatory decision-making. Phase I of the project (1983-1984) resulted in a set of research-based school improvement plans…

Differential functioning of males and females on achievement test items was studied in a sample of 110,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12. First, item parameters and ability estimates for these parameters were obtained from LOGIST computer program runs for the entire group. Predicted performance for each item for each group was…