Occasionally, differences in test scores seem to indicate that a student performs much better in one reading area than in another when, in reality, the differences may not be statistically significant. The author presents a table in which statistically significant differences between Woodcock test standard scores are identified. (Author)

Current spelling assessment practices are reviewed. Six individually administered standardized tests presently available to special educators and diagnosticians are examined. Informal procedures (inventories, criterion-referenced tests, and error analysis) are analyzed in terms of advantages and disadvantages. Finally, two particularly promising…

The article reviews the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery in terms of its standardizaton and psychometric qualities, and its strengths and weaknesses regarding administration, scoring, and interpretation. (CL)

A framework is presented for implementing standardized achievement testing. Fundamental concepts and formats of the tests are reviewed, and useful references are listed. Standardized tests are considered and categorized in terms of administration format, functions, validity, and type (cognitive versus noncognitive). Thirteen basic recommendations…

A total of 413 students in grades 1-6 were administered the Basic Academic Skills Samples, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, and the Metropolitan Achievement Test. Although the relationships among the three tests were reasonably strong, it appeared that the measures did not identify identical populations of at-risk students. (Author/JDD)

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…

The Miller Assessment for Preschoolers, intended for children ages 2-5, is designed as both a screening and a diagnostic assessment, measuring neuromaturational variables, coordination, language, memory, problem solving, and visual perception. This review examines test administration, summation of data, standardization, reliability, and validity,…

Issues such as the utility of standardized assessment instruments in the assessment of severely handicapped infants and preschool children are considered. A model is proposed for analyzing underlying cognitive requirements of assessment tasks and for using results of such an analysis for program planning. (Author/DB)

The article describes the development of a Knowledge Battery to assess the competency level of secondary special education students receiving instruction in the Life-Centered Career Education Curriculum. The Battery consists of 89 subcompetency tests with items selected, validity, reliability, cutting scores determined, and standardization…

This study, with 66 regular classroom children and 52 children with learning disabilities, found high correlations among the Cognitive Levels Test, the KeyMath-Revised measure, and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised. Overall, 81 percent of subjects were correctly classified using the three-instrument battery. (Author/DB)

This survey on modifications allowed for students with disabilities by 30 states in statewide criterion-referenced testing programs found no universal agreement about modifications. Accommodations in Test Setting and Test Scheduling were more frequently allowed than revisions in Test Directions or Test Format. Assistance devices and accommodations…

Rasch calibration procedures were applied to item-response data for the 1,262 infants and toddlers comprising the standardization sample for the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Analyses tend to confirm the psychometric integrity of the instrument. (Author)

This study examined the construct validity of the KeyMath-Revised by testing the factorial model proposed by the test author. Results failed to confirm the proposed factorial model and suggested that the KeyMath-Revised assesses two domains that are difficult to interpret, rather than the three proposed by the test author. (Author/JDD)

The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test assesses achievement in students in grades K-12, with subtests in reading, mathematics reasoning, spelling, reading comprehension, numerical operations, listening comprehension, oral expression, and written expression. The test was developed to assist in identification of students with learning…

This article provides an overview of strength-based assessment of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders and discusses the development and psychometric characteristics of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS). The BERS is a norm-referenced, standardized test that assesses the strengths of children and…