The purpose of this paper is (1) to discuss a set of standards that can be used to evaluate potential assessment instruments; and (2) to use these standards to evaluate the American College Testing Program's College Outcomes Measures Program (ACT-COMP) and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Academic Profile. Using the work of S. Messick (1975,…

The ability of three measures to predict teaching employment was examined: National Teacher Examinations; Education in the Elementary School Specialty Area Test; and supervisors' ratings of student teachers, Student Teacher Rating Form (STRF). The test scores were moderately correlated, but the STRF was a more valid predictor of employment.…

Eighth grade teachers in three local school districts helped customize two standardized norm-referenced tests for ninth graders to investigate effects of deleting some items and adding locally constructed items. Results indicate that percentile ranks for the customized tests could be very different from those for the complete test. (SLD)

A study was conducted to assess the effect of station position in a multiple-stations performance-based examination administered to 127 senior medical students. There was no evidence for a sequence effect on student performance, with no improvement on scores awarded for standardized cases across successive cases in the examination. (SLD)

The difference in gain scores produced by traditional pretests and those produced by retrospective pretests when compared to posttest scores on the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument for preservice teachers was investigated in this study. Results indicated that gain scores using the traditional pretest produced significant improvement in…

Opinions about the purpose and effectiveness of test preparation seminars vary, but it is clear that preparation for standardized tests is here to stay. The literature suggests that students do benefit from preparation for standardized tests. The effect of test preparation seminars on standardized achievement tests was studied for 30 of 100 high…

This paper discusses whether or not revisions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) have created such significant differences between the two tests that a student could conceivably score significantly higher on one than the other. The SAT has been revised to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student…

A popular method of analyzing test items for differential item functioning (DIF) is to compute a statistic that conditions samples of examinees from different populations on an estimate of ability. This conditioning or matching by ability is intended to produce an appropriate statistic that is sensitive to true differences in item functioning,…

Results of applying different aptitude-achievement discrepancy models for test scores were compared for 150 second, 150 third, 150 fourth, and 130 fifth graders in several school systems in the Southeast who had been referred for psychoeducational testing for learning disabilities to determine whether different groups of students were identified…

Various parallel forms of the NTE (National Teacher Examinations) Test of Professional Knowledge (NTETPK) have been administered to examinees aspiring to initial teacher certification since 1982. To confirm that recent reported scores are comparable to those from earlier forms, the stability of the score scale was studied using section…

The relationship between scores on the cognitive domain of the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) and scores on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test (SBIT), Fourth Edition, was studied for 32 urban, low socioeconomic status (SES), African American children (22 males and 10 females) aged 3 to 5 years. The BDI is a developmental inventory…

The original Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) have been among the most popular measures of performance and aptitude of infants. In this study, the construct validity of scores on the Behavior Rating Scale of the revised Bayley Scales, the BSID-II, was investigated using national standardization and clinical samples of children ranging in…

The correlative features of assigned reading and in-class performance were evaluated for 75 students enrolled in psychology classes in two community colleges in Maryland. Four tests and a final examination were used to measure in-class performance as a function of rates of reading and times of attendance. Control for content was attempted by…

Two experiments were conducted in Israeli elementary schools to test the assumption that disadvantaged students perform poorly on ability tests because of situational factors related to the testing process. Testing atmosphere and examiner status were examined with respect to verbal and nonverbal ability and intelligence. The assumption was not…

Examinees in a regular administration of the quantitative portion of the Graduate Record Examination responded to particular items in a machine-scannable multiple-choice format. Volunteers (n=364) used a computer to answer open-ended counterparts of these items. Scores for both formats demonstrated similar correlational patterns. (SLD)