This paper describes new approaches to assessment in dance and dance education. The first part examines assumptions behind traditional models of evaluation in academic and performing arts contexts. I consider whether it is useful to understand human ability as unitary or if it is meaningful to evaluate people according to a single dimension of…

This bulletin attempts to present: (1) the comparative extent to which farm and nonfarm groups are receiving public secondary education; and (2) the relation of significant factors concerning high schools and the farm population to participation in secondary education by farm children. The data here presented must be regarded as incomplete but…

Three developments over the past 15 years--our understanding of cognition, new techniques in technical psychometrics, and the computer explosion--form the basis for a proposal for new intelligence tests. These developments are reviewed, and both leaps and steps in intellectual assessment are proposed. (Author/RD)

Describes a new theory of multiple intelligences (MI) that identifies seven relatively independent forms of information processing that individuals exhibit in differing patterns. Describes the following MI-related educational research projects: (1) Arts PROPEL; (2) the Key School project; and (3) Project Spectrum. (FMW)

This paper describes efforts to establish ungraded classes for mildly retarded children in New York City from 1900-1920, focusing on struggles to find and train qualified teachers, correctly identify children to be served, and provide ample classroom space. The introduction of intelligence testing is also examined. (Author/JDD)

This article discusses issues and difficulties encountered in efforts at the University of Birmingham (England) to standardize a new psychometric assessment tool, a tactile speed-of-information-processing test for children with blindness. The problem of defining the population on which the test is standardized is seen as particularly difficult.…

This article describes the gifted identification process of the Westport, Connecticut, school system. The process uses information obtained through six components: a referral form, student rating questionnaire, examples of classroom performance, parent assessment questionnaire, Otis-Lenon School Ability Tests, and performance-based assessment. (CR)

Objectives: To examine the relationship between sexual abuse and academic achievement in an adolescent inpatient psychiatric population. Individual factors expected to influence this relationship were measured to explore the way they each interacted with sexual abuse and its relationship to academic achievement. Method: Eighty-one adolescent…

Discusses issues pertinent to the testing of Hispanic children whose learning difficulties may indicate a handicap. Describes the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) (Mercer and Lewis, 1979), reviews the educational status of Hispanic children in the United States, and outlines preliminary findings from the SOMPA II project.…

A critical review of the psychometric properties of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) model for student assessment is presented. The review criticizes the lack of validity of some of the measures but praises the goals of the system. (JKS)

Discusses lower rates of success among indigenous Australian students and describes an instrument that investigated how well students cope with life out of school as an alternative indicator of ability. Highlights include the impact of cultural background on intelligence test results and results of trials in primary and high schools. (Author/LRW)

This article presents an interview with Professor Alan Davies who was born in Wales, studied at Oxford University and Birmingham University, and taught in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, completing 40 years this year. Professor Davies has travelled widely to give invited talks and seminars, participate in applied linguistics conferences,…

Adolescents' developing sense of competence is based on two domains, ability and intelligence. Intelligence testing generally presumes a conception of ability as current capacity that limits the extent to which effort can improve performance. Conceptions of intelligence, and other skills, involve implications about the nature of different forms of…

Because testing, in many different forms, currently plays such an important role in education, Elementary Secondary Education Act, Title I, the Division of Federal Assistance in the Vermont State Department of Education, prepared this brochure to present a general introduction to terms and phrases commonly used in testing and to highlight some of…

Admissions officers are convinced that the Scholastic Aptitude Test offers at least a better clue than high school grades alone as to how well prospective students are likely to perform in their first year of college. Bias is seen as only one of many explanations for score differences among groups. (MLW)