Author Description

The development, administration, and evaluation of a national survey to determine college students' understanding of world affairs are described in 12 articles that focus on survey measures, procedures, and results. Stephen F. Klein and Sheila M. Ager describe the issues examined by an assessment committee, their choice of an issues framework for the test, and the selection of content areas, including foreign affairs, world history, and area studies. Thomas S. Barrows discusses four types of measurement methods that were employed: Likert, self-report, semantic differential, and error choice. John L. D. Clark discusses the rationale for the foreign language component, data selection instruments, pretesting of self-appraisal technique, and language pretest results. Mary F. Bennett briefly addresses elements of students' backgrounds that might influence the development of global understanding. Henry I. Braun considers stratification, sample selection, sample characteristics estimation, and variance estimation. Lois G. Harris, Mary F. Bennett, and Thomas S. Barrows examine recruitment, administration, and sampling error, and Stephen F. Klein and Sheila M. Ager discuss structure of the knowledge domain, level of test performance, and item level performance. Mary F. Bennett highlights data that are relevant from foreign language background, proficiency, and attitude standpoints. Thomas S. Barrows presents the results of the surveys, and Thomas S. Barrows and John L. D. Clark report on analyses to fit together response data and survey measures. Additionally, Thomas S. Barrows provides a summary and interpretations. Questionnaires and a list of participating colleges are appended. (SW)