PASSAGE INDEPENDENCY AND QUESTION CHARACTERISTICS: AN ANALYSIS OF THREE INFORMAL READING INVENTORIES

ABSTRACT

Three informal reading inventories were examined to identify passage independent test questions, questions which could be answered correctly without reading the corresponding passages. Fourth grade students of good and poor reading ability were administered the test questions orally without access to the passages. The percentage of questions answered correctly was calculated for each test. An analysis of variance procedure revealed that the Classroom Reading Inventory was the most passage independent followed by the Analytical Reading Inventory and Ginn 720 inventory respectively. However the two reader groups did not differ significantly in their performance across the three tests. An analysis of children's responses to the questions revealed that three question categories in particular tended to be passage independent in nature. These categories were: a) general information b) vocabulary meaning and c) affective. The investigation also examined the literal and inferential characteristics of the test questions. Suggestions were made for evaluating the validity of reading comprehension questions     

Sex Role Stereotyping and the Evaluation of the Performance of Women: Changing Trends

Conditions under which people are prejudiced against women are examined. In two experiments, college students evaluated two professional articles in feminine fields and two in masculine. The author's sex and title were manipulated such that each article was authored in four ways-by a male (Mr.), a female (Miss), a high status male (Dr.) and a high status female (Dr.). It was concluded that prejudice against women may not be as pervasive as demonstrated in previous research but that women in certain "masculine" fields may receive biased evaluations of their work by men if they are thought to be of low professional status.