A 2-year investigation was initiated to determine the reliability and validity of the New York State competency tests used in selecting candidates for teacher preparation in the trade and industrial programs. The three most widely used tests--auto mechanics, cosmetology, and machine shop--were selected for investigation and further revision.…

Examines several decisions of district and appeals courts and the Supreme Courts, both State and Federal, under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and their implications for personnel and training management. In a reversal of the appeals court decision, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Washington vs. Davis that the…

Introduces this issue of "The Counseling Psychologist," which considers several contemporary developments and issues in the areas of testing and assessment and their relevance for counseling psychologists. Topics examined by the papers are identified, along with five additional current issues in testing and assessment. (Author/TE)

A proposed model for the validity of measures of professional competence treats validation as the evaluation of inferences drawn from test scores, focusing on evaluation, generalization, and extrapolation. The model is used to indicate strengths and weaknesses of assessments of professional competence: observations of performance, simulations, and…

The correlation was examined between the Officer Selection Battery (OSB) and the five areas of evaluation comprising the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Basic Camp Student Evaluation Report: physical fitness, graded military skills, job performance, peer rating, and academic potential and grades. The moderating effect of the…

This report describes a large scale research effort to validate and improve the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) aptitude area (AA) composites now used by the Army to select and classify enlisted personnel. Data were collected from existing Army sources on over 60,000 soldiers and over 60 Military Occupational Specialties (MOS).…

This publication is designed to help vocational evaluators wisely select and use tests within the context of the referral questions and the individualized evaluation plan. The first of two parts contains information on why tests are used in evaluation, problems with tests, and how to select tests. Part 2 contains a review of specific tests that…

Testing in the United States has had a checkered history since tests were developed and used at the beginning of this century. In the earlier part of the century, test results were used to justify the exclusion of immigrants from parts of Europe. More recently, they have come under attack as restricting the access of blacks to jobs and education.…

A review of court cases, involving the use of various standardized tests, highlights the kinds of test validity and the interpretation by the courts of test fairness in setting personnel selection standards. Guidelines established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are shown to support the use of predictive validity in…

This report explores the validity of measures for eventual use in assessing attitudinal and cognitive skills of delinquent adolescents. Ten measures of a battery along with a reading test were administered to adolescent males, 14 to 18 years of age, held in pretrial detention. The 11 tests were validated against 37 criterion variables encompassing…

This paper describes the construction of a new examination for Federal Coal Mine Inspectors, using the Job Element (J-Scale) method. Headquarters administrators and field inspectors rated the importance of various job elements. The values given to 32 elements, a comparison of test and actual proficiency, ratings, and examples of the rating…

Construct validity was investigated for three tests of clinical competence in medicine: National Board of Medical Examiners examination (NBME), California Psychological Inventory (CPI), and Resident Evaluation Form (REF). Scores from 166 residents were analyzed. Results suggested low construct validity for CPI and REF scales, and moderate…

A study used item response theory to examine the vocational interests of 2,709 high school students (1,436 males; 1,273 females) in Australia in relation to Holland's vocational interest typology (1973, 1985, 1997), which identifies six fundamental vocational types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) that…

Examines circumstances leading to elimination of the Professional and Administrative Career Examination (PACE), which was agreed to in the Luevano et al. v. Campbell consent decree. The validation project, the psychometric properties, and the impact on applicant flow of the PACE are summarized. Possible ramifications are discussed. (Author)

The potential usefulness of self-assessment of low-level aptitudes, such as basic or elementary reading, writing, and calculating, was explored in a test validation context, following the model of B. Davey (1980, 1990). Self-assessments were sought to provide criterion-related or construct validities that might otherwise be unobtainable for some…