Based on three independent samples of high school adolescents in central Canada, aged 12 to 18 years, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to identify, test, and cross-validate first-order and second-order factorial structures underlying the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Specifically, the study…

The Deductive-Nomological (D-N) model of human behavior is useful and provides the most objective explanation when it is appropriate but it is not necessarily an all-inclusive statement. For instance, explaining human behavior is always an act that entails languages and theories that are value laden and reveal human choices; however the D-N model…

This study assessed the construct validity of a cognitive structure interpretation of multidimensional scaling solutions of concept similarity data. Using high school subjects, convergent validity was assessed through correspondence of scaling solutions of three similarity rating tasks; word association, similarity judgment, and semantic…

Journalists have some justification for dismissing scholarly inquiries into their craft because communication science does not take journalists and their craft seriously either. Empirical research into journalistic practices fails to take journalism seriously in the sense Jurgen Habermas outlined: meanings of news texts are described without…

The belief of educational researchers that teacher self-reports cannot be trusted, and the provision of validation evidence for a teacher self-report questionnaire on open education are the purposes of this study. Data were collected in two classes in each of eight schools, which were a stratified (by architecture and by programmatic openness)…

The present study, using a sample of 1,491 grade 10 students from a mid-western province in Canada, examined the validity evidence on the Canadian Tests of Basic Skills. Factor analysis of the 34 micro-skills (content by skill/process classification of items) of the four tests indicated that the Reading Comprehension, Written Expression, and Using…

The design and evaluation of a rating scale for program evaluation in problem-based medical curricula are described. The design process was guided by a theory of how students learn in problem-based learning as modeled by W. H. Gijselaers and H. G. Schmidt (1988). The rating scale was used in an evaluation of a new problem-based, community-oriented…

Determining the cross-cultural equivalence of multilingual tests is a challenge that is more complex than simple horizontal equating of test forms. This study examines the functioning of a trilingual test of preschool readiness to determine the equivalence. Different forms of the test have previously been examined using classical statistical…

The message about general literacy standards in Canada (as reported in the Southam Literacy Survey) is that approximately five million Canadians are illiterate. The validity of this message must be challenged because a group of middle-class Canadians with middle-class values established the criteria for being "literate" and felt that all…

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) manages the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NABPLEX). A new Scope of Pharmacy Practice study was completed in 1994, and representatives of NABP and the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities of Canada met in 1995 to discuss the possibility of…

An evaluation was made of the effectiveness of an empirically derived five-item questionnaire, the Teacher's School Readiness Inventory (TSRI), in identifying at-risk or failure-prone preschool children. Screened with the TSRI in the spring of either the prekindergarten or kindergarten year, four samples totalling 453 children were followed…

Current curriculum evaluation models tend to cater to desirable or ideal situations and offer little help to the evaluator of ongoing curricular innovations, many of which are characterized by little assistance or control of implementation, little monitoring or supervision of operation, and haphazard postimplementation modification or development.…

A study investigated two questions regarding the validity of holistic writing evaluation: (1) How well do holistic scores predict sentence length, passage length, and spelling errors in grades 3, 6, and 9 narrative and explanatory writing? and (2) Which model best predicts these variables (across grades within type, or within grade within type)?…

One approach to classification of criminal cases suggests that controls are best allocated to those at risk and services to those in need. The Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI), a 58-item risk/needs checklist developed in Ontario Probation and Parole, was completed on the basis of reviews of official records and interviews with subjects and…

This study was conducted to determine whether the administration of translation of an English language, teacher attitude test to teachers of other cultures would measure the same things as does its English original. The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory (MTAI) was given to 509 French Canadian elementary school teachers, and the factor structure…