Disengaged responding poses a severe threat to the validity of educational large-scale assessments, because item responses from unmotivated test-takers do not reflect their actual ability. Existing identification approaches rely primarily on item response times, which bears the risk of misclassifying fast engaged or slow disengaged responses.…

The effects of different response option orders on survey responses have been studied extensively. The typical research design involves examining the differences in response characteristics between conditions with the same item stems and response option orders that differ in valence--either incrementally arranged (e.g., strongly disagree to…

The contribution of family environment to variation in achievement scores of children was found to be relatively small compared to the contribution of social status. Parental aspirations and their educational orientations assessed by home interviews and the implications of this study for previous environmental research are discussed. (Author/CM)

The validity of spelling tests in several formats was investigated against the criterion of an estimate of spelling accuracy in ranked writing samples. The correlation between writing samples and spelling production was greater than with recognition of correct spelling. Variations in reliability and rankings were not responsible for the…

Canonical-redundancy analyses were computed across the Profile of Mood States and the Eight State Questionnaire on a sample of 289 college undergraduates in order to estimate the degree of measurement overlap of the two multidimensional mood-state instruments. (Author/BS)

An extension of Tinto's model of the college dropout process was tested with freshmen at an Australian university. The college entrance examination was a relatively valid predictor of whether students will pass, achieve honors, or fail or withdraw. Nonintellective factors were not valid predictors of academic progress. (Author/BW)

There is increasing interest in using situational judgment tests (SJTs) to supplement traditional student admission procedures. An important unexplored issue is whether students can intentionally distort or fake their responses on SJTs. This study examined the fakability of an SJT of college students' performance. Two hundred ninety-three…

A follow-up study of 1,149 freshmen at a major Filipino university showed that intellective measures were only moderately successful predictors of college grade point average. However, the nonintellective variables considered were (with the possible exception of level of scholastic expectation) of little value as predictors of college performance.…

The effectiveness of an abridged group assessment procedure in predicting initial teaching success, where success was measured largely through practice teaching evaluations, was tested with a sample of 247 female graduates of a teacher training college in Israel. Results justify use of the assessment in the college admission process. (SLD)

Learning processes, as measured by the Approaches to Studying Inventory, contributed to the prediction of freshman grades of 181 Australians. Other measures, such as college entrance examinations, locus of control, and student background characteristics, had less predictive ability. (GDC)