The effects of presenting a choice of writing tasks on the quality of essays produced by eleventh graders were studied with 34,200 students in Georgia. The choice condition had no substantive effect on the quality of essays, but race, gender, and the writing task variable did. (SLD)

Three procedures for the detection of differential item functioning under item response theory were compared. Data for 2 forms of a mathematics test taken by 1,490 college students were analyzed through F. M. Lord's chi-square, N. S. Raju's area measures, and the likelihood ratio test. (SLD)

Over 5,000 students participated in a study of the dimensionality and stability of the item parameter estimates of a mathematics performance assessment developed for the Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying Student Achievement and Reasoning (QUASAR) Project. Results demonstrate the test's dimensionality and illustrate ways to examine use of the…

The relationship between characteristics of test takers and characteristics of test items was examined in a quasiexperimental study involving 301 high school juniors and sophomores taking a mathematics examination that was consequential to sophomores but not juniors. Results are interpreted in relation to the expectancy value model of motivation.…

The feasibility of combining criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests into a school achievement test score to be used for school effectiveness classification was studied with 361 elementary schools across 2 years and across a subsample of 264 schools. Results support combining scores of different tests to measure school effectiveness. (SLD)

In a study with 167 college students of the effect of adverse learning conditions on achievement, action-oriented college students performed better than state-oriented students on a lecture-based achievement test despite low-expressive instruction and prior perceived academic failure. State-oriented students also experienced more negative…

College students randomly assigned to mastery goal (n=26) or competitive goal (n=25) situations read a passage and took a free-recall test. The mastery situation resulted in higher achievement and greater interest, and there was no significant difference between groups in learning strategies. (SLD)

A stress management program focusing on promoting competence was evaluated with 157 students in 3 samples in sixth-grade classes of an urban public and a suburban parochial school. The program had the same beneficial effect in all three samples, supporting the efficacy of direct treatment in reducing children's stress. (SLD)

A subset of a real data set was used to illustrate an ad hoc analysis with missing data on multiple response variables. This strategy was initiated with a complete-case analysis to determine some variables that may be deleted with no loss in effects of interest. (SLD)

The Type I error rates and statistical power of nine selected multiple comparison procedures were compared in a Monte Carlo study. The Peretz, Ryan, and Fisher-Hayter tests were the most powerful, and differences among these procedures were consistently small. Choosing among these procedures might be based on their calculational complexity. (SLD)

The paradox that a Student t-test based on pretest-posttest differences can attain its greatest power when the difference score reliability is zero was explained by demonstrating that power is not a mathematical function of reliability unless either true score variance or error score variance is constant. (SLD)

The relationships among gender, interest in and experience with electricity, and conceptual change text manipulations were studied for 48 male and 50 female college students learning basic electricity concepts. Conceptual change text facilitated learning, as expected. Interactions of gender and interest are discussed. (SLD)

The generalizability of the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model was tested with 152 American seventh and eighth graders across different measures of mathematics and verbal self-concepts and across gender. All but one of the findings were consistent with the I/E model. (SLD)

A study was conducted of differences in processing speed and recall with 61 10th-grade biology students studying a unit on plants and controls who took only the unit tests. Processing speed and recall improved as much for students completing the unit as for controls. (SLD)

Presents a comprehensive review of validity that includes an empirical evaluation of the actual and potential consequences of score interpretation and use, how those consequences come about, and what determines them. Six distinguishable aspects of construct validity are highlighted as a means of addressing central issues implicit in the notion of…