Objective: This study presents evaluative data on the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire (CEVQ), a brief, self-report measure of youth victimization. Methods: Literature reviews, expert consultations and qualitative interviews informed the development of the CEVQ. Test-retest reliability of the preliminary and final versions of the…

Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007) have proposed an operational definition of "validity" that shifts many of the questions traditionally considered under validity to a separate category associated with the utility of test use. Operational definitions support inferences about how well people perform some kind of task or how they respond to some kind of…

With many children and adults affected by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, researchers strive to understand the underpinnings of ADHD and associated factors on both a basic and applied level. The goal of this volume is to explore some of the broad array of research in the field of ADHD. The 12 chapters cover a variety of topics as varied…

This study evaluated the content, concurrent, and construct validity of the Leadership Skills Inventory (LSI), a measure designed to help students analyze the strength of their leadership skills. Results indicated satisfactory content, concurrent, and construct validity, although factor analysis revealed that the LSI contained only one factor, not…

The issues of construct validity, predictive validity, and item content bias on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) are examined. The review concludes that most objective data have not supported the issue of bias of the WISC-R when used with children of different ethnic backgrounds. (JDD)

This article addresses ethical dilemmas experienced by street-level research and evaluation workers recruiting and gathering data in community-based research projects. The authors focus on a subgroup of street-level research workers, whom they call research extenders (REs), employed because they share important characteristics with the target…

Psychometric evaluation of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (PKBS) is reported. Factor analyses indicated the presence of a stable factor structure for both social skills and problem behaviors scales. Reliability studies indicated the PKBS has adequate-to-strong stability. Explorations of within-scale relationships yielded evidence…

The development of the Parent Attitudes toward School Effectiveness (PATSE) questionnaire was conducted in two phases. The pilot test form contained 47 items reflecting parents' attitudes toward 6 categories: (1) school and community relationships; (2) clear school mission; (3) high expectations; (4) safe and orderly environment; (5) instructional…

Basic skills tests in which measurement of growth is defined in the context of national norms are discussed. An integral part of the construction of norms is the production of a trait or ability score which is normed. Test publishers define a multidimensional trait by including items which measure it. The trait as a construct is a distinct…

The Test of Problem Solving (TOPS) was evaluated by 20 speech-language clinicians based on designer claims that the test assesses integration of semantic, linguistic, and reasoning ability and taps skills needed for academic and social acceptance. Results challenged the content validity of the test. (Author/DB)

This study used the Assessment Standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to evaluate the appropriateness and adequacy of selected standardized tests of mathematics achievement as they pertain to students with disabilities. Problems with content validity included inadequate representation of content domains, inappropriate…

This study established content validity and reliability for the Infant Behavioral Summarized Evaluation, a rating scale for young children with autism. Analysis of videotapes for 89 children (ages 6-48 months) revealed a significant group of 19 items, including characteristic early autistic behaviors and some less commonly described (such as…

This study, involving 20 children (ages 4-11) with severe hearing impairments, affirmed the content validity of the Clark-Madison Test of Oral Language as a measure of nonwritten expressive language with hearing-impaired children. Performance comparison with hearing individuals revealed a different profile of strengths and weaknesses than did…

The Stages of Concerns Questionnaire (SoCQ) is an established instrument which has been used primarily with inservice teachers involved in innovations. While it focuses on inservice teachers' concerns about an innovation, the instrument is based on theoretical constructs developed by the work of Frances Fuller and others during the 1960s with…

Investigated are the context dependency and construct validity of practical skill assessment in science which may include the skills of observing, manipulating, planning, interpreting, reporting, and self-reliance. Pupil performance on a variety of practical tasks were compared with external examination grades in biology and chemistry. (CW)