This report summarizes the findings of Jackson and Lahadern who used a revised form of the Student Opinion Poll (SOP) and a questionnaire to study the intercorrelations of attitudes and achievement. The study found that: (1) first graders have attitudes toward school work but these attitudes were not differentiated toward specific school subjects;…

Based on the writings of Donald R. and William M. Hammerman, this inventory is divided into 3 parts. The first attempts to determine how well a teacher understands the term "outdoor education." The second asks the teacher's opinions, impressions, and attitudes toward outdoor education. Part three asks the teacher which objectives of an…

The Alpert-Haber Achievement Anxiety Test was developed to measure the extent to which individuals experience test anxiety. In at least two published studies, the authors claim to have used the test when in fact the response format was changed from that used in the original instrument and the "buffer" items were omitted. To investigate…

It was theorized that an answer-until-correct procedure, whereby an examinee marks responses to each multiple-choice question until feedback indicates that the correct answer has been marked, would yield scores of greater reliability and validity than conventional number-right procedure. Two papers and an application exercise for an undergraduate…

The Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) developed an instrument for rating the technical quality of television programs. The project was undertaken in conjunction with AEL's Home Oriented Preschool Education (HOPE) program, but sought to produce a generalizable instrument. The final instrument contained a category for judging overall program…

The recommended procedure for achievement test selection is presented. Following a review of some fundamental definitions of statistical properties of achievement tests (validity, reliability, and norms), major considerations to be applied in selecting achievement tests are discussed. These considerations are: (1) the characteristics of the school…

An introductory textbook on psychological tests and measurements is presented in paper back booklet form. The style is informal and humorous, and the book is intended to appeal to the contemporary student. Ten chapters constitute the text: (1) On Measurement and Existence; (2) A Brief, Imprecise History of Psychological Testing; (3) The Creation…

The purpose of this year-long study was to explore the effectiveness of the Trythall system of music dictation instruction (particularly Trythall's small-step, programmed method) in the training of aural skills--error detection, melodic dictation, rhythmic dictation, harmonic dictation, chord identification, and sight singing. For this study, the…

Two forms of the CEEB English Composition Test and four tests constructed by the University of Illinois Rhetoric department were compared as final examinations for the freshman English composition course. Results from 2545 students indicate that while the CEEB tests discriminate more between students and are more reliable, the departmental tests…

Conclusions from an examination of the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that it furnishes little help for those involved in the publication of composition textbooks. Four main difficulties in making inferences from the Assessment data on writing are (1) it is not clear why individuals perform as well or as poorly…

A good criterion-referenced test item is defined as the one which allows the individual to answer correctly if he masters the criterion behavior represented by the item and answer incorrectly if he actually does not master it. Therefore, a good discriminating item for criterion-referenced tests is the one which has a larger proportion of correct…

Because previous reports have suggested that the lowered validity of tests scored with empirical option weights might be explained by a capitalization of the keying procedures on omitting tendencies, a procedure was devised to key options empirically with a "correction-for-guessing" constraint. Use of the new procedure with Graduate…

A random sample of 225 grade one children were given the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test (CCAT) on two occasions within seven months. During the second administration the WISC was also administered. KR-20 reliabilities of the CCAT for the two administrations were respectively .83 and .74. The test-retest reliability was .75. The correlation…

Teaching performance tests are measures which assess a teacher's ability to accomplish prespecified instructional objectives. Although possessing much face validity, little psychometric information is available about such assessment devices. Three separate studies were conducted to provide information about the validity, reliability,…

A study was conducted to validate a school behavior rating scale on a sample of 1,153 elementary school children. Results indicate stable means and variances over grades kindergarten through fifth grade and a stable factor structure. Sex differences on behavior ratings favored females over males at all grade levels. School behavior ratings…