As the research on feigning has grown, the number and quality of performance validity tests (PVTs) has increased as well. However, while several PVTs have been developed from assessments commonly used as part of neuropsychological batteries, there has been less exploration for PVTs scored from items in cognitive screeners. The Montreal Cognitive…

Psychosocial competencies; such as prosocial behaviors, compliance with authority, attention regulation, independence, and emotional regulation; play a crucial role in child development. Higher levels of these competencies in childhood are linked to fewer behavior problems, while deficits in these competencies can predict future problem behaviors.…

This study was an initial psychometric investigation of the Universal Behavior Screener (UBS), a nine-item screening measure developed by psychologists within the Hawai'i Department of Education (HIDOE) to identify elementary school youth at risk for social, emotional, and behavioral concerns. Data from nine teachers reporting on 230 students at…

The lack of validated autism spectrum disorder (ASD) screening instruments hampers rehabilitation efforts for children with ASD in Africa. In the present study, the psychometric properties of two ASD screening instruments, that have been well-validated in the United States (US) context, were examined in the Ugandan context. These instruments were…

Early literacy curriculum-based measures (CBMs) are widely used as universal screeners within multi-tiered systems of support in reading (MTSS-R) for (1) evaluating the overall effectiveness of the reading system and (2) assigning students to supplemental and intensive interventions. Evidence supporting CBM validity for these purposes have…

Adolescent mental health is a growing concern in the United States. Children who experience mental health issues struggle in the school environment if their needs are not met. Teachers play a critical role in the classroom when identifying students who struggle with mental health issues. The purposes of this convergent, parallel mixed-methods…

Magnet schools have been a main tool or innovation in urban education settings in the United States, originating in the early 1970's and expanding into most large urban districts today (Blank, 1989). While some magnet schools do not rely on a specific criterion to determine entry, many do. This study focuses on such a setting where students must…

Early identification of at-risk students is a critical element of Response to Intervention (RTI) but there are few validated universal screeners for high school mathematics. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the screening system currently in use at one urban Texas public high school and compared its effectiveness to alternate screening…

Social emotional skills and competencies are integral to student success at home, school, and in the larger community. Extant research also consistently demonstrates that social emotional skill deficits are associated with various adverse outcomes. Universal screening for social emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early…

Reading fluency involves a complex interaction of different cognitive skills and abilities that develop with instruction and practice and relies on the automaticity of many distinct reading skills (e.g., pacing, word recognition, expression, phonological awareness). Fluent reading frees cognitive resources, such as working memory, for more…

Although there are several comprehensive measures of children's anxiety symptoms, many have limited utility for screening within school settings. As such, the primary purpose of this dissertation was to develop a brief self-report anxiety measure appropriate for use with students in Grades 3-8. An initial pool of 50 items was developed based on…

Reading comprehension assessments often lack instructional utility because they do not accurately pinpoint why a student has difficulty. The varying formats, directions, and response requirements of comprehension assessments lead to differential measurement of underlying skills and contribute to noted amounts of unshared variance among tests. Maze…

Students learning to read in more than one language, or emerging biliterates, are becoming increasingly common in schools. Early screening and identification of reading difficulties may lead to better outcomes for emerging biliterates as well as monolingual English students. Oral reading fluency (ORF) is one tool shown to be both a reliable…

Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early identification and intervention for students as part of multitiered systems of support. Because early intervention has the potential to mitigate adverse outcomes of emotional and behavioral disorders and schools are prime locations to reach at-risk youth, research…

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of teacher ratings for screening children's language skills. Teacher ratings were measured through the use of two tools, the "Children's Communication Checklist-2" (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) and the "Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy" (TROLL; Dickinson, McCabe, &…