School accountability decisions based on standardized tests hinge on the degree of alignment of the test with a state's standards. Yet no established criteria were available for judging strength of alignment. Previous studies of alignment among tests, standards, and teachers' instruction have yielded mixed results that are difficult to interpret…

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Form U, is scored in two ways: number-correct and pattern. The latter makes use of the information about which particular items are answered correctly, giving more weight to the more discriminating items and making allowances for guessing. Critics have suggested that black students are penalized by pattern…

Careful management of a testing program can greatly limit a teacher's opportunity to cheat while administering standardized tests to students and can increase the likelihood that such cheating will be detected. The Austin Independent School District's systemwide testing staff's plan for controlling cheating has three basic premises: (1) plan and…

Using identified factors that affect students' musical outcomes, this research study examined how instrumental music students attending "good" rural Appalachian high schools compared to other instrumental students. "Good" refers to those 12 Appalachian rural school districts identified as the best out of 46 rural county school…

Equating studies using item response theory (IRT) are reviewed. The most well-known papers, as well as a sampling of lesser-known studies, are included. Accompanying tables list the papers and classify them according to the test used, models used, test length and type, sample size and type, method of assessment, equating design, and kinds of…

Discussions of "test curriculum overlap" that focus on the term "mismatch" tend to be based on several untenable premises. This paper addresses the issue of the degree to which standardized tests should reflect the specific content of a given school curriculum with regard to three points: (1) The idea of matching the content of…

A model for the validation of standardized tests of academic achievement upon populations not represented in the samples used to standardize the tests is presented, and the results of a field testing of the model are described. The 1973 editions of the Stanford Achievement Test and the Test of Academic Skills were administered to a sample of…

The accuracy of trait estimates obtained from three vertical equating methods was examined. The procedures studied included two anchor test designs and a single-group design. Data from two content areas and two grade combinations were studied. A three-parameter logistic model was used to perform the equatings. The results obtained were used to…

This paper focuses on Smith's (1982) concept of test-wiseness strategies, describing several approaches that may maximize guessing on multiple-choice exams. Several previous studies indicated that the average level of performance increased when guessing was encouraged and decreased with instructions advising against guessing. Several studies were…

A confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the respective viability of factor structure models for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) standardization data. The traditional verbal-performance split was compared to an alternative model proposed by Gutkin, Reynolds and Galvin. The confirmatory analysis indicated that the…

This study investigated the relationship between and among the results of three types of reading assessments in the first grade: a standardized reading test (the Stanford Achievement Tests); an informal reading inventory (the Classroom Reading Inventory); and teacher judgment of student rank in reading achievement. The study included 165 first…

This paper reports on the promises and pitfalls of the recently legislated basic skills testing requirement for teaching or service credential applicants in California. The California Basic Education Skills Test (CBEST), developed by Educational Testing Service from specifications set by Advisory Board to the State Department of Education, tests…

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to compare attitudes that male and female preservice elementary science methods teachers have toward science and science teaching. The stratified random sample (n=80) was drawn from the population of preservice elementary teachers enrolled in an elementary science methods course during fall 1990,…

Autonomous Learning Behavior (ALB) as mediators between internal and external influences and performance on high level cognitive tasks was proposed as a possible explanation for gender-related differences in mathematics. This study developed a measure of ALB by drawing on teachers' working knowledge and the literature on problem-solving, including…

The decline in standardized test scores during the 1960s and 1970s is well documented and is seen in both aptitude and achievement test scores. This paper describes and analyzes the test score trends over the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s for five aptitude tests: (1) the Scholastic Aptitude Test; (2) the American College Test; (3) the Preliminary…