Review of Construction and analysis of achievement tests

Abstract

Reviews the book, Construction and analysis of achievement tests by Dorothy C. Adkins, assisted by Ernest S. Primoff, Harold L. McAdoo, Claude F. Bridges, and Bertram Forer (1947). In their volume on testing for human skills and capacities important to the public service Dr. Adkins and her colleagues have not only followed the canons of scholarship admirably but have also made the techniques of measurement clear for intelligent laymen and reasonably comprehensive for the specialist. Directed primarily to achievement as against aptitude testing, and to the prediction of job performance, it is the first volume of its kind with chief emphasis on the development of tests by and for public personnel agencies. Unlike most "practical" books this text is not superficial. Difficult, complex topics and techniques are not dodged, if they are necessary to an understanding of test development. Extensive tryout of the materials in training courses has demonstrated that persons new to the field of testing can learn, with the aid of this text, to apply the concepts and methodologies germane to testing in the public service. Although theoretical questions are strictly excluded, adequate discussion plus the necessary modus operandi of calculation are given for means, standard deviations, standard errors of differences, tetrachoric and point biserial correlation, and multiple regression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)