Results indicate that students who have attended single-sex girls' schools and then proceed to an all women's college do not make as much progress toward maturity as other college students from co-educational schools. (Author/MB)

A model is presented using examinee judgements in detecting ambiguous/misinterpreted items on teacher-made criterion-referenced tests. A computational example and guidelines for constructing domain categories and interpreting the indices are presented. (Author/PN)

Investigates the effect of mastery testing on student performance in an introductory college physics course at Cornell Univeristy, Ithaca, New York using an interview technique with a sample of 22 students. (HM)

A question and answer dialogue is presented that addresses some of the common barriers encountered by writers of criterion-referenced tests. The guidelines deal with performance objectives, intended outcomes, test items for higher levels of learning, compiling test items, managing item construction, and limitations of the criterion test. (JMD)

This article describes a sequential criterion-referenced assessment tool that can be used by social work students in field work and field instructors in evaluating student progress over a semester, a process benefiting both groups. The system provides students with periodic self-administered, self-scored tests. Development and sustained use of the…

Describes study that compared the performance of high achieving and low achieving undergraduates on two computer assisted instruction modules, one in which learners were forced to review informational frames following errors and one where the review was optional. Dependent and collateral variables are discussed and criterion referenced tests used…

This article discusses two major functions of fitness tests and the standards used to evaluate test results: measurement of individual differences (evaluated by norm-referenced standards), and assessment of student mastery of a predetermined standard (evaluated by criterion-referenced standards). Two sample letters to parents regarding student…

Provides an alternative analysis of the reliability associated with the van Hiele Geometry Test based on the assumption that the norm-referenced reliability coefficients provided by the developers were inappropriate. Discusses the agreement coefficient and the kappa coefficient. (YP)

Some unfinished issues relating to achievement test theory that seemed implicit in the basic idea of criterion-referenced testing are reviewed, recognizing their importance in current studies of authentic assessment and performance-based tests. The future of performance-based evaluation is explored. (SLD)

Debate about the levels-setting process for criterion-referenced tests of achievement is reviewed. An alternative framework is proposed for conceptualizing the problem and practice of setting performance standards on such tests. Standard setting is reconceptualized as the development, description, and implementation of reasonable rules for…

Current successes and failures in U.S. educational measurement are reviewed, focusing on criterion-referenced testing. Pluses and minuses are listed for the following: (1) the move toward authentic assessment; (2) the dominance of criterion-referenced assessment; and (3) item response theory applications. Each area is a double-edged sword. (SLD)

Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced approaches were used to set a minimum passing score for Part II of the pilot National Board Dental Examination. Standards and associated failure rates were found similar for both approaches. This and the advantages of the former approach suggest it is an appropriate method. (Author/MSE)

Student learning is a complex incremental cognitive process; assessment needs to parallel this, reporting the results in similar terms. Application of fuzzy sets and logic to the criterion-referenced assessment of student learning is considered here. The constrained qualitative assessment (CQA) system was designed, and then applied in assessing a…

This report describes how an advisory committee of health occupations education instructors from Missouri schools where tests were given statistically analyzed test items for health services assistant for reliability and validity and then revised the test items. Seventy-five sets of test item booklets were printed. Four test booklets and a…

This notebook contains criterion-referenced test items for testing students' knowledge of small engines. The test items are based upon competencies found in the Missouri Small Engine Competency Profile. The test item bank is organized in 18 sections that cover the following duties: shop procedures; tools and equipment; fasteners; servicing fuel…