Reliable and valid assessment of parenting and child behaviors is critical for clinicians and researchers alike, and observational measures of parenting behaviors are often considered the gold standard for assessing parenting and parent-child interaction quality. The current study sought to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Coder…

The Boxall Profile provides a framework for the structured observation of children in nurture groups. It is a detailed and rigorously trialled normative diagnostic instrument developed for teachers and teaching assistants to measure children's levels of emotional and behavioural functioning. Moreover, it highlights specific targets for…

For the promotion of students' learning in science, teachers must attend to critical classroom situations in which students express their ideas about scientific concepts and methods. The notion of professional vision is used to describe the skill of noticing situations that are relevant for learning and understanding. The present study contributes…

Prevalence estimates suggest that up to 20% of students in schools experience significant internalizing behaviors that impact behavioral, social, or academic functioning. School-based interventions have great potential to promote student mental health; however, validated and feasible brief assessments are needed to progress monitor students'…

This study aimed at investigating the differences between the yields of inquiry-based integrated thematic instruction and thematic instruction model on the character education of primary school students. The population was 253 elementary schools and 63,433 students in Surakarta City, Central Java, Indonesia. Samples were obtained through…

Background: Behavioral support may be effective in increasing physical activity (PA) in school settings. However, there are no data collection systems to concurrently record PA and behavioral support. This paper describes the development and validation of the System for Observing Behavioral Ecology for Youth in Schools (SOBEYS)--an instrument used…

Validity is critical for meaningful assessment of surgical competency. According to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, validation involves the integration of data from well-defined classifications of evidence. In the authoritative framework, data from all classifications support construct validity claims. The two aims of this…

Prevalence estimates suggest that up to 20% of students in schools experience significant internalizing behaviors that impact behavioral, social or academic functioning. School-based interventions have great potential to promote student mental health; however, validated and feasible brief assessments are needed to progress monitor students'…

The New Mexico Public Education Department developed the Kindergarten Observation Tool (KOT) as a multidimensional observational measure of students' knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry. The primary purpose of the KOT is to inform instruction, so that kindergarten teachers can use the information about their students' knowledge and skills…

Keith Marcus congratulates Almond et al. on an interesting article bringing together two topics that are important to the field of testing. He states that some aspects of the exposition came across as not yet fully developed, as if the manuscript had been hurried to press. In this commentary, he attempts to expand aspects of the article, which he…

Background: The shortage of skilled workers choosing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers in the USA and worldwide has fueled a movement towards STEAM, in which the "A" addresses the arts and humanities. STEAM education has been proposed as a way to offer relevant problems to solve while drawing on creative and…

Literature on "Thin Slice" ratings indicates that a number of personality characteristics and behaviors can be accurately predicted by ratings of very short segments (<5?min) of behavior. This study examined the utility of Thin Slice ratings of young children with autism spectrum disorder for predicting developmental skills and…

The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) is commonly used to measure variables related to physical activity during physical education (PE). However, SOFIT does not yield detailed information about teacher practices related to children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). This study describes the modification of SOFIT…

The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP), an observation measure designed to assess the quality of classroom practices in inclusive preschool programs. The measure was field tested in 51 inclusive classrooms. Results confirmed and extended previous research findings, providing…

There has been a steady interest in investigating the validity of language tests in the last decades. Despite numerous studies on construct validity in language testing, there are not many studies examining the construct validity of a reading test. This paper reports on a study that explored the construct validity of the English reading test in…