Search

This report asserts that rapid changes in many areas, such as technology and communications, marked the 20th century, the first century of ability testing. Predictions about the second century of testing seem difficult in such a context. Yet, looking back to the turn of the last century, E. Kirkpatrick (1900) in his American Psychological Association presidential address, presented fundamental desiderata for ability testing (normative age standards, emphasis on culture-general tasks, simultaneous measurement of many persons, and adult ability measurement) that, in fact guide major testing research even today. An overview of the last century shows that most fundamental principles in psychometrics and testing were available by 1930. With a few notable exceptions, the remainder of the last century of testing was devoted to applying or refining these principles. The paper predicts that the same patterns will occur in this century of testing. Further developments in model-based measurement and cognitive psychology principles in testing, intermingled with technology, will guide ability testing throughout the next century. These changes, which are elaborated in detail, include fundamental changes in test development procedures, the nature of the measuring tasks, aspects of ability that are measured, and types of interpretations given to ability. (Contains 3 tables, 8 figures, and 80 references.) (Author/SLD)

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 population, and the changes will take effect in 1994. The ACT underwent significant revisions in 1989 and has been renamed the Enhanced ACT Assessment. The SAT is defined as an aptitude test that purports to measure a student's ability to learn. The Enhanced ACT Assessment remains a curriculum-based test that measures academic development in English, mathematics, reading, and science reasoning. Each test claims to be an accurate assessment of student capacity for college-level work. A majority of colleges and universities accept either the SAT or the ACT scores. A review of the characteristics of both tests suggests that a student who is a divergent thinker, an underachiever, a member of a minority group, from a mediocre high school, or good in mathematics could do better on the SAT. A student with a good educational background, good grades in high school, or a weakness in mathematics might choose to take the ACT or both tests. (SLD)

Building student abilities for taking standardized tests has certainly become an issue as testing has become increasingly important in the U.S. educational system. How much emphasis should a school or district place on educating students to do well on such tests? It is certainly possible to spend too much school time learning to take tests, and the time for test preparation can certainly detract from other activities and experiences in the school curriculum. It is also possible to spend a great deal of money on test preparation materials that may prepare a student for a test that is not really relevant to the curriculum or to what he or she should be learning. States should make certain that they are using a good product as part of a state assessment program, and then they should ensure that schools are adhering to the state standards or objectives of instruction in teaching and learning. States have an obligation to make pilot studies of the tests they develop, just as they need to evaluate the chances of computer glitches in test scoring. The test results from students should be used to improve instruction and to improve the state standards. (SLD)

There is considerable debate in the educational literature about whether students of similar ability should be grouped together for instruction. Those who advocate keeping students uniform in academic achievement cite advantages to heterogeneous grouping and suggest it is the best way to bring all students to grade-level standards. Democracy as a way of life, however, should emphasize each person's achieving as much as possible, rather than being held to the standards of unifying a group through cooperative teaching. Advocates of grouping students over a continuum of ability stress the importance of respecting individual differences. Reconciling these points of view is a major dilemma in public education. (SLD)

Classical test theory, item response theory, and generalizability theory all treat the abilities to be measured as continuous variables, and the items of a test as independent probes of underlying continua. These models are well-suited to measuring the broad, diffuse traits of traditional differential psychology, but not for measuring the outcomes of school learning. Discrete latent structure models offer a powerful and promising alternative. Abilities can be modeled as partially ordered sets of discrete states (at a minimum, "nonmastery" and "mastery") and may be linked according to an asymmetric "prerequisite" relation. Narrower, simpler abilities may be combined into broader, more complex abilities. The various possible outcomes of performing a task can be modeled as a partially ordered set of task performance states. Abilities and task performances are clearly distinguished from one another, and more than one ability pattern may permit successful performance of a given task. Subtasks need not be modeled as conditionally independent given ability. The mapping from ability states to task performance states shows clearly what a given test can and cannot measure, and what may be inferred from a given pattern of test performance. These models for ability and task performance, together with the mapping between them, may be augmented with a suitable model for measurement error (misclassification) to complete an alternative framework for scoring, analyzing, and interpreting test performance. This framework has the potential to solve significant measurement problems inherent in performance testing and other applications. (Contains 12 figures.) (Author/SLD)

Recent research has studied the link between schooling and income. Evidence indicates the strong relationship found between level of education and lifetime earnings levels. Labor economists have designed studies and measured educational outcomes to differentiate between earnings associated with innate ability and earnings associated with investments in education. A series of studies to control ability using intrafamily measures, including surveys of fathers, sons, brothers, and twins attending an annual convention of twins, helps to identify the relatively robust finding that returns to education average around 10 percent. Other "natural" experiments using time of year of birth and compulsory school attendance laws and draft lottery numbers from the Vietnam War era also shed light on the magnitude of educational effects and support the 10 percent figure. (Appendixes include eight footnotes and three figures.) (YLB)

This paper questions teacher evaluation based solely on "research based competencies" or "generic teaching skills" divorced from subject content or specific context. Three topics are discussed: (1) the use of the word "skill" in educational discourse; (2) the implications of such usage; and (3) the plausibility of thinking in terms of generic teaching skills and understanding. The word "skill" is often used indiscriminately to describe very different types of skill, including physical, intellectual, perceptual, social, creative, and interpersonal activity. The first section discusses some of the potentially important distinctions obscured by the cavalier use of the word. The relative educational importance of various skills is also questioned. The second section treats the distinction between skill and ability, terms that current usage renders as synonymous. It is particularly dangerous to think of critical thinking skills as physical behaviors perfected by practice and context-free. The third section relates the generic skills issue to teaching, which does not embody routine performance of these skills, but involves helping students respond critically, creatively, and enthusiastically to certain areas of understanding. To that end, a crucial criterion for teacher evaluation is mastery of some worthwhile subject matter. Included are 11 references. (MLH)

This monograph identifies the five broad areas in which the author believes disabled people are especially likely to find employment in the years ahead. It answers, as far as can be foreseen, the question, "Where are the jobs?" The book is organized into six chapters. In the first chapter, the author examines social science research on the job market and gives some reasons why predicting employment trends is so difficult. In the second chapter, he presents his view on what is not going to happen in the next 10 years or so. For example, he does not believe that computer repair and programming occupations are going to increase significantly. Chapter 3 explores the area of "pocket marketing," a theory that suggests that even in times of high unemployment, areas of opportunity exist, whether in certain geographic areas or in meeting specific unmet needs. These "pockets" could generate jobs for disabled people. The fifth chapter details the five areas of opportunity that the author predicts will provide jobs for handicapped people. The areas explained and focused on are general services, special services, sales, information services, and entrepreneurship. In the fifth chapter, the author matches these five areas to the personal characteristics needed for each type of work. The final chapter offers suggestions for actually making the scenario happen. The chapter outlines the kinds of steps that need to be taken by disabled people themselves, service agencies, other government agencies, and employers in order to put disabled persons to work in the five areas. (KC)

It is only a slight exaggeration to describe the test theory that dominates educational measurement today as the application of twentieth-century statistics to nineteenth-century psychology. Sophisticated estimation procedures, new techniques for missing-data problems, and theoretical advances into latent-variable modeling have appeared--all applied with psychological models that explain problem-solving ability in terms of a single, continuous variable. This caricature suffices for many practical prediction and selection problems because it expresses patterns in data that are pertinent to the decisions that must be made. It falls short for placement and instruction problems based on students' internal representations of systems, problem-solving strategies, or reconfigurations of knowledge as they learn. Such applications demand different caricatures of ability--more realistic ones that can express patterns suggested by recent developments in cognitive and educational psychology. The application of modern statistical methods with modern psychological models constitutes the foundation of a new test theory. (Contains 99 references.) (Author)

National standards can help schools respond to diversity by creating school cultures that are task oriented rather than ability oriented. Ability goals foster competitiveness and hinder low achievers, who can get the support they need to meet high standards when the focus is on task achievement. (SK)

Observes that increasing numbers of overseas-trained professionals are seeking recognition of their qualifications in Australia. Asserts that only scant consideration has been given to recognizing and supporting skilled migrant early childhood professionals. Explores one type of program that attempts such recognition and makes key recommendations to achieve this recognition and support. (BGC)

The history of the concept of intelligence is reviewed, and the construction and uses of psychological tests are explored. Skills consist of a large number of abilities. It is argued that the psychological entity, intelligence, is determined by particular contexts, contexts often induced by social demands. (SLD)

This paper presents the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) and analyzes its potential impact on education. MI pluralizes the traditional concept of intelligence from logical and linguistic problem solving to a set of abilities, talents, or mental skills called Intelligences. An Intelligence entails the ability to solve problems or fashion products of consequence in a particular cultural setting. The seven Intelligences are illustrated by biographical sketches of persons demonstrating an unusual facility with that Intelligence: (1) musical (Yehudi Menuhin); (2) bodily-kinesthetic (Babe Ruth); (logical mathematical (Barbara McClintock); (4) linguistic (T. S. Eliot); (5) spatial (navigators); (6) interpersonal (Anne Sullivan); and (7) intrapersonal (Virginia Woolf). These Intelligences are significantly independent although most cultural roles require a combination of Intelligences. The developmental trajectory of each Intelligence begins with raw patterning ability and develops through a symbol system and notational system to expression during adulthood as vocational or avocational pursuits. Because the Intelligences are manifested in different ways at different developmental levels, both assessment and education need to be appropriate. Assessment methods must include the individual's ability to solve problems or create products using the materials of the intellectual medium. (BS)

Based on experience of having two children with multiple learning disabilities, the author offers strategies for parents to help children experience success and excellence in their education: (1) never limit expectations or predetermine the final outcome; (2) explore all interests and abilities for hidden potential; and (3) include children in regular education classes and activities whenever possible. (KDFB)

Responds to previous article by Lowman on the Inter-Domain Model of career assessment and counseling. Asserts that Lowman's proposal may be detrimental to current practice. Examines interrelationships between interests and personality; between interests and ability; and among interests, ability, and personality. Concludes that counselors are assessing wisely. (NB)

This document describes the theory and practice of testing; illuminates competing interests in a balanced fashion; and helps those who make decisions with tests or about testing to reach better-informed judgments. Part 1, the report of the Committee, presents a wide-ranging discussion of testing issues. The text has been kept largely free of the critical apparatus of scholarly literature. Chapters 1 through 3 provide an overview of the controversies surrounding testing, an introduction to the concepts, methods, and terminology of ability testing, a brief history of testing in the United States, and a discussion of the proliferation of legal requirements that have come to surround the use of tests. Chapters 4 through 6 describe test use for employment selection and educational purposes, point out common types of misuse, and make recommendations about how tests might be better used to preserve the integrity of the technology while at the same time responding to legitimate social, institutional, and individual goals. Chapter 7 takes a look at the limitations of standardized tests and then attempts to establish a sense of proportion by placing the controversy over testing within the context of the larger social currents that influence the course of national life. (Author/GK)

Presents a case study illustrating learned helplessness orientation in preschool children and how adult responses to a child's successes and failures directly influence a child's perception of his or her abilities. Suggests that teachers should compliment successes by highlighting the ability demonstrated and address failures with comments concerning effort. (SD)

Responds to previous article by Spokane in which Spokane reacted to Lowman's article on Inter-Domain Model of career assessment and counseling. Responds specifically to Spokane's allegations of triple bias, alleged obligation always to assess in all three domains (personality, vocational interests, ability), overlap among the domains, confusion of career assessment and career intervention, and the underassessment of abilities. (NB)

Discussion of ways to improve student focuses on the simple concept of letting students read whatever they choose, including comic books or so-called trashy books. Barriers to this approach are discussed, including the difficulty in breaking away from past practices and academic research that is unhelpful to practitioners. (LRW)