A series of tests was administered to Ontario, Canada students who had completed the eighth grade: mathematics, reading, language, written English, social studies, science, health, physical fitness, French as a second language, French as a first language, written French, values, moral reasoning, problem solving, and attitudes. Approximately 50…

This Users Manual is the supporting documentation for the Public Use Data File from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS). The data file contains certain merged data from the base year (1972), and first, second, and third follow-up NLS surveys for 22,652 cases. This volume contains only appendices K through Q, as…

The Basic Occupational Literacy Test (BOLT) was developed as an achievement test of basic skills in reading and arithmetic, for educationally disadvantaged adults. The objective was to develop a test appropriate for this population with regard to content, format, instructions, timing, norms, and difficulty level. A major issue, the use of grade…

In order to compose equivalent certification tests in the basic skills in reading, mathematics calculations and applications, and writing for high school graduation requirements, the San Jose Unified School District, California, used the Rasch computer program to arrive at the scaled difficulty level of test items. The procedure for achieving a…

As part of a series of annual evaluations of the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes of Massachusetts public-school students, this report represents the assessment of basic skills attainment of grade 12 students. The first three chapters contain a summary of the design and methodology of the testing program. The remaining five chapters…

This manual is designed to accompany reports prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for the 505 school districts in that state, summarizing results of the Educational Quality Assessment. The normative sample is described as being stratified on two dimensions: district enrollment and wealth. Administrative procedures are summarized.…

In previous studies of ethnic group bias in intelligence test items, the question of bias has been confounded with ability differences between the ethnic group samples compared. The present study is based on a conditional probability model in which an unbiased item is defined as one where the probability of a correct response to an item is the…

TAILOR is a computer program that uses the implied orders concept as the basis for computerized adaptive testing. The basic characteristics of TAILOR, which does not involve pretesting, are reviewed here and two studies of it are reported. One is a Monte Carlo simulation based on the four-parameter Birnbaum model and the other uses a matrix of…

Distractors, the incorrect responses to an item on a multiple-choice test, should be designed to create confusion in the minds of some students and to permit a competent student to be able to see that they are wrong. It is possible, by close scrutiny, to isolate the sources of this confusion and, by looking at a statistical analysis, to find out…

Multiple-choice standardized achievement tests of English vocabulary and reading comprehension and of mathematics were administered to samples of 592 grade eight students and 615 grade five students. Two forms of each test unit were prepared. The control groups took forms containing items with four responses, while the experimental groups took…

Intended as a comprehensive introduction to the construction and use of foreign language tests, this book utilizes modern linguistic knowledge as a base for scientific language testing. Major attention in testing is focused on such integrated language skills as auditory and reading comprehension, speaking, writing, translation, and over-all…

The Vocational and Occupational Interest Choice Examination (VOICE) was designed to measure the interests of enlisted men entering the Air Force. Items forming the inventory were primarily generated by examining job analysis in relation to the airman classification structure. The purpose of this effort was to develop and validate a prototype of an…

The feasibility and the cost-effectiveness of using confidence testing as a diagnostic aid in technical training programs were studied. Two types of confidence testing, Pick-One and Distribute 100 Points, were developed for comparison to conventional multiple-choice testing. The criteria for feasibility included end of block examination grades,…

Technical improvements, which may be made in the reliability and validity of tests through confidence scores, are discussed. However, studies indicate that subjects do not handle their confidence uniformly. (MS)

This paper contains in-depth explanations of the 58 scoring categories used in evaluating performance on an "in-basket" situational test for management trainees. A sample scoring sheet, respondent rating scale, and a list of possible responses are included. (DLG)