As technology use continues to rapidly increase, so too does consumer use of web-based resources. While important, accessibility is often overemphasized by users when consuming and evaluating web resources. This prioritization may have particularly negative consequences for the selection of supports or interventions in educational settings. This…

Spanish speakers in the United States are a steadily increasing population, up by 233% since 1980. Given the growing population of dual language learners (DLLs) and the large numbers of Spanish-speaking children enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, addressing the educational needs of preschool-aged DLLs has become a national imperative.…

Spanish speakers in the United States are a steadily increasing population, up by 233% since 1980. Given the growing population of dual language learners (DLLs) and the large numbers of Spanish-speaking children enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, addressing the educational needs of preschool-aged DLLs has become a national imperative.…

The Computer-based Orthographic Processing Assessment (COPA) is a newly developed assessment to measure orthographic processing skills, including rapid perception, access, differentiation, correction, and arrangement. In this study, cognitive diagnostic models were used to test if the dimensionality of the COPA conforms to theoretical expectation,…

Measuring program outcomes is required for documenting effectiveness of interventions with youths participating in programs funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) initiative. The California CYFAR program provided programming for youths aged 5-8, which necessitated the development of an…

The Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests (MFaCTs) are a series of measures designed to assess for arithmetic calculation skills and calculation fluency in children ages 6 through 18. There are five main purposes of the MFaCTs: (1) identifying students who are behind in basic math fact automaticity; (2) evaluating possible delays in arithmetic…

Assessing students' emerging literacy skills is crucial for identifying areas where a child may be falling behind and can lead directly to an increased chance of reading success. The Waterford Assessment of Core Skills (WACS), a computerized adaptive test of early literacy for students in prekindergarten through 2nd grade, addresses this need.…

The Early Fractions Test is a paper-pencil test designed to measure mathematics achievement of third- and fourth-grade students in the domain of fractions. The purpose, or intended use, of the Early Fractions Test is to serve as a student pretest covariate and a test of baseline equivalence in the larger study. In this report, we discuss our…

Cumulatively, participation in optional science learning experiences in school, after school, at home, and in the community may have a large impact on student interest in and knowledge of science. Therefore, interventions can have large long-term effects if they change student choice preferences for such optional science learning experiences. To…

The initial purpose of this study was to utilize the Higher Education and Students with Physical Disabilities Survey (HESPDS) to develop a better understanding of the perceptions of students with physical disabilities regarding the extent to which private, residential colleges and universities provide access and equal opportunity. The significance…

Objectives: This article describes the Standard Interview for Evidence Use (SIEU), a measure to assess the level of engagement in acquiring, evaluating, and applying research evidence in health and social service settings. Method: Three scales measuring input, process, and output of research evidence and eight subscales were identified using…

Validity evidence based on test content is of essential importance in educational testing. One source for such evidence is an alignment study, which helps evaluate the congruence between tested objectives and those specified in the curriculum. However, the results of an alignment study do not always sufficiently capture the degree to which a test…

We expect that word knowledge accumulates gradually. This article draws on earlier approaches to assessing depth, but focuses on one dimension: richness of semantic knowledge. We present results from a study in which three distinct item types were developed at three levels of depth: knowledge of common usage patterns, knowledge of broad topical…

Although researchers call for inquiry learning in science, science assessments rarely capture the impact of inquiry instruction. This paper reports on the development and validation of assessments designed to measure middle-school students' progress in gaining integrated understanding of energy while studying an inquiry-oriented curriculum. The…

Statewide physical fitness testing is gaining popularity in the United States because of increased childhood obesity levels, the relations between physical fitness and academic performance, and the hypothesized relations between adult characteristics and childhood physical activity, physical fitness, and health behaviors. Large-scale physical…