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…

The objective of the study was to develop a test of concept formation which would: (1) not be biased by reading difficulty; (2) be sufficiently stimulating to capture the attention of the students; (3) incorporate both aspects of concept formation of discriminative response and conservation; (4) have a spread of item difficulty appropriate for…

A decision model designed to determine the reliability and validity of criterion referenced measures (CRMs) is presented. General procedures which pertain to the model are discussed as to: Measures of relationship, Reliability, Validity (content, criterion-oriented, and construct validation), and Item Analysis. The decision model is presented in…

The development of environmental process measures marks a significant step forward in the assessment of environment quality. As Bloom (1964) predicted, these measures have made it possible to more clearly delineate the relationship between environment and development. Although factorial structure of many process instruments is open to question,…

Pennsylvania's Educational Quality Assessment Program provides each participating school with a building level report in which state percentiles are a prominent part. Multiple matrix sampling was being considered as a technique to reduce testing time. However, there was great concern that the error associated with estimating the school mean might…

This paper discusses the ethical and practical issues involved in the development and implementation of a preschool screening battery. A screening program is described and the resulting data presented in an attempt to illustrate the investment in time, money, and energy required. The ethical questions that arise because of the lack of…

Cognitive style research is hindered by a variety of poorly described measures and style classifications and the use of small samples. This study describes and compares three measures of three postulated dimensions of cognitive style: impulsivity/reflectivity; internal/external locus of control; and field dependence/field independence to determine…

The Women's Liberation Scale (WLS) is a 14-item, Likert-type scale designed to measure attitudes toward positions advocated by women's groups. The WLS and its four-alternative response schema is presented, along with descriptive statistics of scores based on male and female college samples. Reliability and validity measures are reported, and the…

Using the Kuder E General Interest Survey plus the Verification (V) scale as an index of reliability, the Choctaw Career Education Program (Mississippi) found that the results were increasingly unreliable with each decending grade level (7-12). (JC)

To shed as much light on the declining test score phenomenon as possible, pertinent American College Testing data are presented here in a succinct question and answer format. (JY)