This review assesses the American College Test (ACT) Assessment and examines circumstances that can affect students' test outcomes. Understanding the ACT tests is important for using and interpreting test results appropriately. The ACT subtests incorporate both aptitude and achievement measures. The content scope and structure, and limitations of…

Community Involvement for Responsible Citizenship (CIRC) is a five-year Elementary Secondary Education Act Title IV-C project administered by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. Seven school districts formed a community citizenship committee to define citizenship and delineate expectations of citizens living in those communities. To identify…

Reviews of approximately 60 assessment instruments useful with young exceptional children are provided. Tests were selected on the basis of their popularity in eary childhood education literature and their frequency of use by educators in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Reviews are intended to provide descriptive information regarding the content,…

Information on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a major revision of the Vineland Social Maturity Scale, covers authors, publisher, prices, copyright dates and revisions, groups for whom the instrument is intended, forms, purpose and recommended use, dimensions measured, administration, data summation, score interpretation, test…

This article is a one-year review of available research and an appraisal of the Revised Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R). This instrument consistently demonstrates adequate alternate form equivalence across samples and consistently evidences significantly lower standard scores than its earlier version and traditional cognitive tests…

The author empirically evaluates bias in construct validity and criterion-related validity of intelligence tests and bias in personality scales and concludes that little evidence exists to substantiate claims of bias for well-constructed, properly standardized tests. Therefore,, low-scoring minority or disadvantaged children need remedial and…

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has been using the Sander's value-added model to determine if they have had gains in student achievement in language arts, mathematics and reading. The article summarizes the method to make this determination and the results from three years of testing using the CTB McGraw-Hill Terre Nova test. The archdiocese has…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) seeks to include all students in the United States in the sampling frame from which students are selected to participate in the assessment. However, some students with disabilities (SWD) are either unable to take NAEP tests under standard testing conditions or are unable to perform at their…

Explores current thinking on ways to improve the identification and education of intellectually talented youth. Discusses the problems of meeting the needs of individuals with many different abilities and describes a model program at Johns Hopkins University for mathematically precocious youth. (GC)

Focuses on objective techniques, a powerful and long-run force in educational assessment. But how successful have individual objective techniques been? This question must be answered for each test. Includes brief reference to an evaluation of one instrument. (Author)

The role of bilingualism in reading difficulties is explored in the areas of: categories and variations in bilingualism; misinterpretation of standardized reading test results; and diagnostic-prescriptive issues. Particular case studies are presented. (JN)

Summarizing research on standardized tests in the United States, the author identifies three historical rationales for such testing and explores current attitudes toward and use of test results. (WD)

Never has any study received more national attention than that conducted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The study was directed to determine why SAT scores in high schools throughout the country either remained unchanged or improved since 1973. The author disputes this study. (Author/CMG)

Test developers have an obligation to create the most appropriate assessment instruments possible as L. J. Kilian argues, but whether they do or not, educators still are responsible for providing test preparation that is professionally ethical and educationally defensible. (SLD)

Large scale studies of the psychometric characteristics of standardized-patient clinical examinations are reviewed, and recommendations for test improvement are offered, including (1) assessment of history taking, physical examination, and communication skills separately from diagnostic and management skills; (2) a mastery-testing framework for…