A study examined classroom teachers' and remedial reading teachers' perceptions and knowledge about assessment of disabled readers. Surveys were returned by 198 teachers chosen randomly from the membership roll of the International Reading Association. Twenty-nine nonrespondents were contacted by phone and responded orally: no significant…

The psychometric objections to using essays and other subjective tests for measurement can be overcome by a many-facet Rasch model. This model enables judge-awarded grades to be transformed from their arbitrary, local, non-linear rating scale form into linear measures with explicit generalizable meaning of specifiable reliability (standard error)…

Traditionally, coping and adaptation have been considered synonymous in individual's responses to illness and other stressful situations. The Illness Adaptation Scale (IAS) is a 12-item instrument which was designed to assess adaptational outcomes in illness situations as well as four coping modes (instrumental-self oriented, instrumental-other…

Although the Classroom Observation Scales (COS), which measures general process variables stressed in previous classroom research, showed good stability across years and across contexts within years, they did not show the numbers and kinds of relationships with student learning gains expected on the basis of previous research. (Author/BJG)

Article suggested that students must learn through experience to think for themselves and that the College Level Examination Program cannot substitute for that experience. (RK)

The article considers: (1) three fundamental principles for measurement, (2) facts about typewriting and stenographic skills that bear on their measurement, (3) recommendations for testing in accord with those facts and with basic measurement principles, and (4) the establishment of standards and modes of scoring and grading. (Author)

In the Spring 2003 issue of "Harvard Educational Review," Roy Freedle stated that the SAT® is both culturally and statistically biased, and he proposed a solution to ameliorate this bias. His claims, which garnered national attention, were based on serious errors in his analysis. We begin our analyses by assessing the psychometric…

Some of the pitfalls in the construction of multiple choice tests are discussed and examples of invalid questions given. (RM)

The psychometric utility of six experimental cognitive style (CS) measures was analyzed. Examinees were 1,135 clients of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation who, during 1985, completed at least one of the six CS tests. Information is provided on measure reliability; relationships among CS measures; relationships with standard battery aptitude…

An attempt to replicate a study of the accuracy of test results of medical laboratories was unsuccessful. Limitations of the obtained data prevented the research from having satisfactory internal validity, so no formal report was published. External validity of the study was also limited because the systematic random sample of 78 licensed…

This annotated bibliography was developed upon noting a deficiency of information in the literature regarding the training of raters for establishing agreement. The ERIC descriptor, "Interrater Reliability", was used to locate journal articles. Some of the 33 resulting articles focus on mathematical concepts and present formulas for computing…

The Nuclear Locus of Control (NLOC) scales were constructed to assess beliefs as to whether nuclear war and nuclear policy decisions are, or can be, influenced by oneself, powerful others, or chance. Three scales measuring internal, powerful others, and chance nuclear LOC show internal consistency estimates (Cronbach's Alpha) of .87, .76, and .85,…

The oral interview (OI) is a testing procedure that measures a wide range of speaking abilities in a foreign language. Although somewhat different versions are used in different testing situations, the OI always consists of a structured, face-to-face conversation on a variety of topics between a student and one or two testers. The resulting speech…

Six sociometric measures were evaluated on a sample of 85 four-year-olds from three preschool and day care centers. Stability, intercorrelations, and accuracy of classifying rejected children were compared for measures of social preference, social impact, peer ratings, alternative status, and positive and negative nominations. Test-retest…