This study examined whether web-based phonological awareness (PA) assessment in early childhood, specifically the year preceding formal schooling, could help educators reliably predict children's risk for reading difficulties in the first year of school. Ninety Australian children participated in several web-based PA tasks with a high priority…

It is common practice for K-12 schools to assess multilingual students' language proficiency to determine language support program placement. Because such programs can provide essential scaffolding, the policies guiding these assessments merit careful consideration. It is well accepted that quality assessments must be valid (representative of the…

Although the teaching of children's oral language is critical to both their social development and academic success, the assessment of oral language development poses many challenges for classroom teachers. The aim of the study is to develop an approach that: (i) enables teachers to assess oral language in a reliable, valid and comparable manner…

Globalized English proficiency tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are increasingly playing the role of gatekeepers in a globalizing world. Although the use of the IELTS as a "policy tool" for making decisions in the areas of study, work and migration impacts on test-takers' lives and life chances, not…

The C-Test as a tool for assessing language competence has been in existence for nearly 40 years, having been designed by Professors Klein-Braley and Raatz for implementation in German and English. Much research has been conducted over the ensuing years, particularly in regards to reliability and construct validity, for which it is reported to…

This article reports on the development and piloting of a vocabulary recognition test designed for Indigenous Australian children. The research is both application oriented and development oriented. The aims of the article are to determine how well the test is used as a test instrument and the extent to which children recognize vocabulary items in…

The "cloze" test is one possible investigative instrument for predicting text comprehensibility. Conceptual coding of student replacement of deleted words has been considered to be more valid than exact coding, partly because conceptual coding seemed fairer to poorer readers. This paper reports a quantitative study of 447 Australian…

In educational systems, concern has been expressed about the accuracy of classification when marks are aligned to grades or levels. In particular, it has been claimed that a school assessment-based grading would have much greater levels of accuracy than one based on examination scores. This paper investigates classification consistency by…

Essay marking is a subjective intellectual exercise in which the score reliability can be influenced by many factors such as the test design, the marker's interpretation of the marking criteria, the procedure, and the method used in the marking process. After conducting a literature review this study investigated the reliability of essay marking…

Results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) battery trials in Australia are reported. The IELTS tests of productive language skills use direct assessment strategies and subjective scoring according to detailed guidelines. The receptive skills tests use indirect assessment strategies and clerical scoring procedures.…

In 1993, the language section of the Swedish Migration Board initiated the production of documents they called "language analyses" to aid in the processing of asylum seekers. Today, 11 years later, 2 privately owned companies in Stockholm produce these documents. These companies have produced language analyses not only for the Swedish…

Possible integrated and independent tasks were pilot tested for the writing section of a new generation of TOEFL® (Test of English as a Foreign Language™) examination. This study examines the impact of various rating designs as well as the impact of the number of tasks and raters on the reliability of writing scores based on integrated and…

Multifaceted Rasch analysis was used to determine whether bias was evident in the way a group of raters graded two different versions of an oral interaction test, undertaken by the same candidates. Results indicate that certain raters consistently rated the tape version of the test more harshly while others rated the live one more harshly. (10…

Addresses the question of whether any test can be defended as ethical or moral. Defines ethicality in terms of issues such as harm, consent, confidentiality of data, and fairness and presents frameworks for determining equity of educational opportunity. An assessment project in Australia is examined in relation to these concerns. (24 references)…

The Adult Migrant Education Service (AMES) of Victoria, Australia provides courses in English as a Second Language to non-English speaking migrants. Reviews currently under way are attempting to determine the effectiveness of this program and to find ways that might be used to help teachers assess the development of the students and to diagnose…