The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses' Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California,…

In this article, we review translation, adaptation policies, and practices in providing test accommodation for English language learners (ELLs) in the United States. We collected documents and conducted interviews with officials in the 12 states that provide translation accommodations to ELLs on content assessments. We then summarized challenges…

The West Virginia Department of Education's auto grading initiative dates back to 2004--a time when school districts were making their first forays into automation. The Charleston based WVDE had instituted a statewide writing assessment in 1984 for students in fourth, seventh, and 10th grades and was looking to expand that program without having…

This article reports on findings from a mixed-methods validation study of the "Online Survey of Students' Experiences of Learning in Learning Communities". In the quantitative part of the study, we found strong correlations among survey items related to faculty behaviors, student behaviors, and critical thinking. Factor analysis yielded…

Social skills are an important part of development, and deficits in this area have long-term impacts on a child. As a result, clinicians should include a measure of social skills as part of a comprehensive assessment. There are a few well-researched measures of social skills that are currently used, including the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills…

Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,312) were analyzed to examine whether the adverse effects of early insensitive parenting on children's academic functioning can be offset by parents' later involvement in children's education. Observations of mothers' early…

At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the call for all students to be "proficient" in reading and mathematics by 2014. Yet the law expects each state to define proficiency as it sees fit and design its own tests. This study investigated three research questions related to this policy: (1) How consistent are various…