This research examines the field of educational tests and measurements. Testing and social policy, tests and test interpretation, administering tests, scores and score conversion, test evaluation, tests of ability, personnel selection, interest inventories, personality measurement (and self-reporting), judgment and systematic observations, and inference from performance are addressed.
There is growing concern about the effectiveness of social policy in the United States (Education, 1994, p. 86). Problems in primary and secondary education involving low academic are viewed as being both symptomatic of and important contributors to broader social ills. There are inequities that, over a period of many decades, have been built into the allocation of education resources. These inequities translate into very large performance differentials between different ethnic groups and between students following different educational programs. Widespread education failure contributes to the development of problems which require costly intervention in other policy areas, such as welfare and law enforcement.
The American student population may be one of the most extensively tested in the world (Education, 1994, p. 94). Most educational tests are so-called "standardized tests," usually in multiple-choice format and not closely aligned with any particular curriculum. These educational tests are used in a number of ways. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is taken by some college-bound students, and is an important factor in admissions to many universities. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and numerous alternative tests are designed to monitor progress during primary and secondary studies. The results of some of these tests are available to individual students, as well as being aggregated to a school or district level. The tests are statistically rigorous in that the results are calibrated to make them comparable over...