In determining how reliable is reliable enough and how much error can be tolerated in criterion-referenced testing, the following relationships hold: (1) the more specific an objective is, the fewer the items required to reliably measure it; (2) the more specific the objectives are, the more objectives required to cover a given span of the…

Problems encountered in evaluating the effectiveness of an English elective program indicated the need for the development of a criterion-referenced diagnostic test for determining students' knowledge and understanding of certain basic language concepts in the field of English. A survey of 76 English elective programs throughout the United States…

An instrument, combining the advantages of Piaget's individual concept assessment and criterion-referenced testing, was developed to test area conservation, area measurement and area subdivision of primary grade children. This Test of Intuitive Area Concepts was included with the Primary Mental Abilities spatial relations subtest and the Minnesota…

A collection is presented containing four papers dealing with the subject of criterion-referenced testing. This first paper deals with criterion-referenced tests utilizing norm-referenced test items. Aspects covered include a defense of norm-referenced and criterion referenced tests and a justification for the adaptation of norm-referenced test…

Fifty-three high school males took a minicourse on library usage. All were randomly assigned a topic and given response sheets requiring the use of dictionaries, encyclopedias, periodicals, and books. In a discussion session, all received instructional handouts. Students were assigned either to evaluating two peers' pretests (experimental) or…

Criterion-referenced measurement (CRM) has received increasing attention in regular education. However, it is in education for handicapped children that CRM's flexibility for individualization of both instruction and evaluation become even more fully realized. Research is described on one of the first CRM systems (Individual Achievement Monitoring…

A well-constructed criterion-referenced test has an unambiguous descriptive scheme, an adequate number of items, a sufficiently limited focus, reliability, validity, and comparative data. (Author/MLF)

A unified framework for validating criterion-referenced test (CRT) interpretation is proposed. Using functional literacy as an illustration, the instructional outcomes assessed are called achievement constructs, and described in psychological and behavioral terms. The proposed construct validation methods can yield tests more closely linked to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the assembly and system models of reading with respect to the development of phoneme-grapheme association skills in normal and disabled readers. (Author)

Much of the content was presented at the TESOL Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 1971, and is derived from the author's dissertation Experimental Steps to Ascertain Reliability of Diagnostic Tests in English as a Second Language" (Columbia University). (VM)

When determining criterion-referenced test length, problems of guessing are shown to be more serious than expected. A new method of scoring is presented that corrects for guessing without assuming that guessing is random. Empirical investigations of the procedure are examined. Test length can be substantially reduced. (Author/CM)

Focuses on the methods of establishing and maintaining content validity of criterion-referenced multiple-choice tests through refined item writing techniques. (Author)

A problem of considerable importance in certain educational settings is determining how many items to include on a mastery test. Applying ranking and selection procedures, a solution is given which includes as a special case all existing single-stage, non-Bayesian solutions based on a strong true-score model. (Author/JKS)