Geometry plays an important role in the school mathematics curriculum all around the world. Teaching of geometry varies a lot (Hoyls, Foxman, & Kuchemann, 2001). Many countries revise the objectives, the content, and the approaches to the geometry in school. Studies of the processes show that there are not common trends of these changes…

Helping students develop a sound understanding of scientific concepts can be a major challenge. Lately, learning progressions have received increasing attention as a means to support students in developing understanding of core scientific concepts. At the center of a learning progression is a sequence of developmental levels reflecting an…

Initially administered in 1961, the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) was the first paper-and-pencil measure of vocational development. The present research revised the CMI to reestablish its usefulness as a succinct, reliable, and valid measure of career choice readiness, with a few theoretically relevant and practically useful content scales for…

This technical report summarizes student-level analyses conducted with the SEL Skills Survey and the Student Climate Survey to determine if a single measure of students' SEL skill acquisition and perceptions of school climate is possible. A separate research brief of this report also was published. [This report was supported by St. David's…

This research brief highlights findings from the technical report (published separately). Student-level analyses were conducted with the SEL Skills Survey and the Student Climate Survey to determine if a single measure of students' SEL skill acquisition and perceptions of school climate is possible. [For the Technical Report, see ED629195.]

The "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" indicate that test instructions, and by extension item objectives, presented to examinees should be sufficiently clear and detailed to help ensure that they respond as developers intend them to respond (Standard 3.20; AERA, APA, & NCME, 1999). The present study investigates…

The No Child Left Behind Act is a mandate from the federal government for education to increase student performance and school accountability. As a result of this mandate, many states have issued the use of high-stakes standardized tests as a means of monitoring schools' accountability. New York State administers the English Language Arts (ELA)…

The present study reported on the modification of the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (Vlachopoulos & Michailidou, 2006) to assess students' psychological need fulfillment in elementary school, middle school, and high school compulsory physical education classes. Data were collected from 817 5th and 6th grade students, 862 middle…

Development of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the creation of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), changes the pattern of accountability testing. These changes raise the question: "How should NAEP's validity and utility be…

The structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV; D. Wechsler, 2003a) was analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis among a national sample of 355 students referred for psychoeducational evaluation by 93 school psychologists from 35 states. The structure of the WISC-IV core battery was best represented by four…

The aim of this study is to develop a general attitude scale about environmental issues (GASE) for students in different grade levels. The research was carried out with the total 1225 students; 409 (33.4%) were primary school students in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8; 408 (33.3%) of the students were in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 at high schools and the…

The present study examined the validity of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES) [Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006a). Development and validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. "Journal of Adolescence," 29, 589-611; Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006b). Examining the relationship between low empathy and bullying. "Aggressive…

While California community colleges are open to all students eligible and able to benefit, most students must demonstrate that they are ready for college-level academic work by passing the college's placement exam once they enroll. Because California does not explicitly define college readiness standards for high school students, the placement…