The reliability and validity of chance-level scores should be investigated. Only a careful examination of such scores can suggest whether they are likely to reflect random responding or to represent a reasonable estimate of an examinee's ability. (Author/RL)

Students who meet with repeated failure at the beginning of a test are likely to lose motivation to continue to interact with each item. Therefore, it seems better to recommend testing out-of-level for those students scoring at or below the chance score mean. (RL)

When a test is made to separate a group into two distinct subgroups, as well as to provide an estimate of the mean performance of one subgroup (or both of them), such estimates will be biased due to the unreliability of the test. Suggestions for corrective procedures are presented. (RL)

Describes a study which tested the reliability and validity of the Barth-Shermis Social Studies Preference Scale as a measure of teaching orientations with respect to Barth and Shermis' three traditions. Subjects were 190 secondary social studies teachers. (AM)

The Test Battery for Mentally Handicapped Children (TBGB) was developed for the psychological diagnosis of mentally handicapped children in West Germany to provide diagnostic information relevant to educational programing. Reliablity coefficients were completed, tests of validity were undertaken, and the utility of the TBGB for differential…

Reports construction of editions of the child behavior profile for boys aged 12-16 and girls aged 6-11 and 12-16 years, as well as reliability and stability findings, comparisons between normal children and those referred for mental health services, and comparisons with findings for 6- to 11-year-old boys. (Author)

The generalizability of student evaluations of college instruction is analyzed and generalizability theory data collected in a common design is applied. Results suggest that use of student evaluations of teacher effectiveness may lead to decisions based upon undependable data. (Author/GK)

A study involving 202 undergraduates and 115 regular educators examined the reliability of the Rucker-Gable Educational Programming Scale, a measure of teachers' attitudes toward and knowledge of appropriate program placement for handicapped children. Results showed the scale to be only moderately reliable. (SB)

Military males (N=67) and females (N=61) from five common occupational career fields responded to the Occupational Aspiration Scale (OAS), which measures levels of occupational prestige. Analyses revealed that male participants scored significantly higher than females. Possible reasons for differences are discussed. (RC)

A project was designed to provide evaluation materials for dental health education programs at the primary level. Reliable test instruments that assessed cognitive understanding of dental concepts by primary age children were designed. (JN)

Suggests limitations on the sensitivity of cloze procedures to measure the ability of college students to use information across sentence boundaries. (AEA)

The reliability of Oltman's Portable Rod and Frame Test (PRFT) was assessed using 60 first-, third-, and fifth-grade children. Various reliability estimates ranged from .90 to .97. Age and sex differences were also examined. (Author/BH)

Different indices for the internal consistency, reproducibility, or homogeneity of a test are based upon highly similar conceptual frameworks. Illustrations are presented to demonstrate how the maximum and minimum values of KR20 are influenced by test difficulty and the shape of the distribution of test scores. (Author/CTM)

On distractor-identification tests students mark as many distractors as possible on each test item. A grading scale is developed for this type testing. The score is optimal in that it yields an unbiased estimate of the student's score as if no guessing had occurred. (Author/JKS)

Howard's Maze test and Maw and Maw's Which-to-Discuss test were individually administered to 25 educable mentally retarded junior high school students. Although the internal consistency of both tests was acceptably high, scores were essentially unrelated to a host of demographic and other types of variables. (Author)