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The program can determine statistics, such as
the mean score of the test, the percentage of stu
dents receiving a certain score and the specific
number of people receiving a certain score which
helps professors grade curves. A graph can be
printed showing the distribution of students' scores.
Another printout can show students which ques
tions they missed and list correct answers. Each
test item receives a difficulty index based on how
many students miss each question, Wright said.
If everyone in the class missed aquestion, instruc
tors may decide the question was too difficult and
eliminate it from future tests, she said. They might,
however, use it again if it was something they
wanted the whole class to know.
If most students miss a question, the instructor
may examine the question to see if the wording was
incorrect or if it was beyond the scope of the class.
Items also are analyzed according to what cate
gory of students missed it. If a number of high scor
ers missed a question while low-scorers answered it
correctly, the item may be analyzed to see if it is
misleading.
The analysis helps professors examine their tests
to see how they can improve them, Wright said,
"I don't know any professor who doesn't want to
be fair to students," she said.
Wright said professors probably use the system in
large classes because of how long it takes to correct
the tests. She also said some evidence indicates the
sooner the test results gets back to the students the
jnore students can learn from the results,
"It's just fabulous," said Larry Lusk, professor in
the School of Music. He said the system is a boon to ,
him because more than 200 students are in his class.
Wright said the center has finished its first semes
ter with the new equipment and the new printout,
but its potential has not yet been reached.
She said a UNL graduate student, Phillis Dolich,
designed the prgram. Two staff members work with
scoring procedures, Wright said, and three instruc
tional consultants are available to help faculty
examine the result. A full-time computer programmer
is not available.
Wright said some professors are receiving data
printed verbally on a that basis explain the coded
numbers that usually are used. She said that in the
pilot program, the computer prints out messages
such as "This item should be considered for revision."
"I'm not a statistician," said William Gillies, asso
ciate professor of econimics, who is one of the
instructors who receives the verbalized data. "I
essentially don't have time to analyze the results
and this does it for me the first time."
Wright said the test analysis system scores about
200,000 surveys and tests a year. -
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National and international news
from the Reuter News Report
Treaty to be scrapped
if Syria witlidravs
BEIRUT Lebanese President Amin Gemay
el is ready to scrap last May's treaty with Israel
but is waiting for guarantees that if he does so,
Syria will withdraw its troops from Lebanon,
offical sources said Monday. They said Saudi
Arabian mediator Rafiq al-IIariri was ex
pected in Beirut at anytime to bring final word
on the guarantees, which would perhaps take
the form of a Syrian promise endorsed, by
Saudi Arabia. As the politicians wrangled,
radio stations reported two people killed and
more than 30 wounded in artillery attacks on
residential areas of both Christian East Beirut
and the Moslem-held West. There were artillery
exchanges in mountians near Beirut, where
soldiers loyal to Gemayel face Druse militias.
New Jersey guns micced target
SALIMA, Lebanon The battleship New
Jersey missed its target by at least 300 yards
when it fired its one-ton shells Sunday at a
Syrian anti-aircraft battery, residents in the
village of Salima said Monday. The only casual
ties from the 16 shells fired were a dozen goats
which died of shock and the only damage was
to windows and pine trees, they said.
The residents showed Reuters five of the
craters left by the mammoth 16-inch shells, all
of them in pine woods at a safe distance from a
battery of Syrian 23mm anti-aircraft guns. The
Syrian battery, on the ridge above Salima, was
intact and the nearest hit was 300 yards to the
west. . .
Networks defend poll predictions
WASHINGTON The three maior television
networks Monday defended their practice of
projecting election results, but said they would
wait until most polls close before naming a
winner in today's New Hampshire Democratic
primary.
CBS and NBC were sharply criticized at a
hearing of the House Telecommunications sub
committee for predicting former Vice Presi
dent Walter Mondale as the winner of last
week's Iowa Democratic caucus several min
utes before the caucus meetings had started.
ABC announced its projections a few minutes
after the caucuses began, based on a small
percentage of the vote. Officials of NBC and
ABC said they would not project New Hamp
shire results until all polls in the state close at 8
p.m. EST although voting in some cities will
end one or two hours earlier. CBS said it would
wait at least until a majority of votes had been
counted.
Senator: 'Nuclear winter' ignored
WASHINGTON Sen. William Proxmire
Monday accused Congress of ignoring the.
threat of a disastrous "nuclear winter" which
some scientists predict would follow a nuclear
war. Except for the Defense Nuclear Agency,
an arm of the Pentagon, "there has been virtu
ally no formal action by any congressional
committee or any administrative agency to
study this matter in the detail it obviously
deserves," the Wisconsin Democrat said.
Some U.S. and Soviet scientists have pre
dicted that a nuclear war would cause a wintry
climate with weeks of darkness and months of
sub-zero cold, widespread death of plant and
animal life and human starvation. Proxmire
called on Congress and the executive agencies
to work with the Soviet Union and other coun
tries to stop the arms race and the prolifera
tion of nuclear weapons.
: Experts: Sovifets didn't identify C37
MONTREAL The Soviet Union made no
attempt to identify a straying South Korean
airliner before shooting it down last Sep
tember with the loss of 269 lives, a team of U.N.
aviation experts said Monday. Soviet fighters
sent up to intercept the plane also failed to
position themselves alongside ' so that the
South Korean pilot could see them clearly, the
report from the International Civil Aviation
Organization charged, ICAO's air navigation
commission said, "There is no evidence of any
attempt to identify the aircraft."
The commission, basing its conclusions on
air-to-ground communication records, said
these "gave no clear indication that the inter
cepting aircraft had taken up a position within
view of the pilot of the intercepted aircraft."
T. .. : '
