The maximal reliability of a congeneric measure is achieved by weighting item scores to form the optimal linear combination as the total score; it is never lower than the composite reliability of the measure when measurement errors are uncorrelated. The statistical method that renders maximal reliability would also lead to maximal criterion…

Adoption of new instructional standards in science demands high-quality information about classroom practice. Teacher portfolios can be used to assess instructional practice and support teacher self-reflection anchored in authentic evidence from classrooms. This study investigated a new type of electronic portfolio tool that allows efficient…

Observational methods are increasingly being used in classrooms to evaluate the quality of teaching. Operational procedures for observing teachers are somewhat arbitrary in existing measures and vary across different instruments. To study the effect of different observation procedures on score reliability and validity, we conducted an experimental…

This article describes a novel variation of the Body of Work method that uses construct maps to overcome problems of transparency, rater inconsistency, and scores gaps commonly occurring with the Body of Work method. The Body of Work method with construct maps was implemented to set cut-scores for two separate K-12 assessment programs in a large…

The current study compared student performance between paper-and-pencil testing (PPT) and computer-based testing (CBT) on a large-scale statewide end-of-course English examination. Analyses were conducted at both the item and test levels. The overall results suggest that scores obtained from PPT and CBT were comparable. However, at the content…

This article describes the development and initial validation of obtained scores from the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI), which measures expectations as a source of academic stress in middle and high school Asian students. In the first study, exploratory factor analysis results from 721 adolescents suggested a nine-item scale with…