The Administrator Professional Leadership Scale (APLS) was developed to measure the professional leadership quality of a school principal, and to provide principals with anonymous feedback on teachers' perceptions of their leadership. Further refinement was carried out to increase its reliability; to discover categories of administrator behavior…

Procedures for determining cutting scores have been proposed by Angoff and by Nedelsky. Nedelsky's approach requires that a rater examine each distractor within a test item to determine the probability of a minimally competent examinee answering correctly; whereas Angoff uses a judgment based on the whole item, rather than each of its components.…

The reliability of multiple choice tests--containing different numbers of response options--was investigated for 260 students enrolled in technical college economics courses. Four test forms, constructed from previously used four-option items, were administered, consisting of (1) 60 two-option items--two distractors randomly discarded; (2) 40…

Cross-referenced to instructional objectives defined in a previous publication, (Guidelines to Mathematics, K-6), the Wisconsin Mathematics Test can be used to measure achievement gains over a given year, or to detect student strengths and weaknesses, by correlating missed items with the objectives. It is also possible to compare results on a…

The Preschool Academic Skills Test was developed from an analysis of first-grade reading and mathematics materials to identify those behaviors that were assumed to be in students' repertoires prior to first grade. The 105 items are grouped in 10 subtests: Vocabulary, Color Naming, Classification, Functional Relationships, Visual Matching, Auditory…

This report describes the general plan for a study to clarify the interpretation of group performance measures of student achievement. Group tests are the most efficient procedure for collecting achievement information from a large number of students, but they also require item formats that may be different from the form in which students normally…

The feasibility of generating multiple-choice test questions by transforming sentences from prose instructional materials was examined. A computer-based algorithm was used to analyze prose subject matter and to identify high-information words. Sentences containing selected words were then transformed into multiple-choice items by four writers who…

The precision and efficiency of a cognitive test constructed by three different methods of item analysis was compared, using the verbal aptitude subtest of the Florida Twelfth Grade Test. Classical item analysis, factor analysis and the Rasch logistic model were used in the construction of 15 and 30 item subtests and replicated for samples of 250,…

The objective of this study was to develop a highly reliable instrument for primary grade students which was relatively culture free and could accurately identify each child's dominant language. In addition, it should provide normative data regarding the child's fluency in his two most predominant languages. This test, known as the Test of…

This report is part of a general study of Reference Measures for Cognitive and Noncognitive Factors. The main activity being reported is the development of "factor-referenced" or "marker" tests for several recently identified cognitive factors. A secondary activity involves the study of possible relationships to factors already…

A long-term Leverhulme Research Project was established at Stirling University in 1970 to investigate the potential of microteaching as a major ingredient in the preparation of graduate high school teachers in Scotland. Members of the research team developed systematic observation schedules for each of the skills, in order to sharpen the focus of…

This study surveyed 53 master's level students in two tests and measurement classes to determine if and in what fashion they had been victimized by testing and evaluation. The purpose of this activity was to acquire personal data which could be used to both dramatize and formulate criteria for the construction of classroom tests. A majority of…

Since the accuracy and validity of occupational data may vary according to the rating scale format employed, the first phase of the research described in the report employed hypothetical job descriptions from which accurate criterion data could be generated. The second phase of the research required developing an occupational survey instrument…

The purpose of this study was to explore the usefulness of the Rasch test analysis model for providing consistent scale statistics between content-referenced and norm-referenced tests across school districts. A number of content-referenced tests were created to assess student performance relative to basic skills goals identified in reading and…

Because there is a need to measure performance of pupils with complex concepts, the Slide Sorting Task was developed to measure performance on complex concepts of freedom, non-freedom, justice, non-justice. The development of this instrument was presented along with the results of item analyses with several groups of subjects ranging from age…