Evaluators are often called upon to assess the effects of programs. To assess a program effect, evaluators need a clear understanding of how a program effect is defined. Arguably, the most widely used definition of a program effect is the counterfactual one. According to the counterfactual definition, a program effect is the difference between…

Assessment instruments that generate quantitative data on attributes (cognitive, affective, behavioral, "etc.") of participants are commonly used in the chemistry education community to draw conclusions in research studies or inform practice. Recently, articles and editorials have stressed the importance of providing evidence for the…

Comparative interrupted time series (CITS) designs evaluate impact by modeling the relative deviation from trends among a treatment and comparison group after an intervention. The broad applicability of the design means it is widely used in education research. Like all non-experimental evaluation methods however, the internal validity of a given…

There has been increased interest in assessing the quality and usefulness of short versions of the Raven's Progressive Matrices. A recent proposal, composed of the last twelve matrices of the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM-LS), has been depicted as a valid measure of "g." Nonetheless, the results provided in the initial validation…

Background and context: The variables that researchers measure and how they measure them are central in any area of research, including computing education. Which research questions can be asked and how they are answered depends on measurement. Objective: To summarize the commonly used variables and measurements in computing education and to…

We describe the development, validation, and use of the "Learning Progression-Based Assessment of Modern Genetics" (LPA-MG) in a high school biology context. Items were constructed based on a current learning progression framework for genetics (Shea & Duncan, 2013; Todd & Kenyon, 2015). The 34-item instrument, which was tied to…

The article serves as a guide for researchers in developing evidence of validity using bivariate correlations, specifically construct validity. The authors outline the steps for calculating and interpreting bivariate correlations. Additionally, they provide an illustrative example and discuss the implications.

The literature on Automated Essay Scoring (AES) systems has provided useful validation frameworks for any assessment that includes AES scoring. Furthermore, evidence for the scoring fidelity of AES systems is accumulating. Yet questions remain when appraising the scoring performance of AES systems. These questions include: (a) which essays are…

Supervisors evaluated counselors-in-training at multiple points during their practicum experience using the Counseling Competencies Scale (CCS; N = 1,070). The CCS evaluations were randomly split to conduct exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, resulting in a 2-factor model (61.5% of the variance explained).

The purpose of this research was to develop a new tool for assessing multicultural and international competency in faculty teaching through vignette scenarios of university classroom critical incidents--across disciplines of clinical and forensics psychology, business, and education. Construct and content validity of the initial draft vignettes…

This study records findings of a study carried out in a group of 100 students at a South African university. This study examines the group's assignments as a way of gathering evidence about pre-service teachers' achievements in the process of education and training. The empirical study was based on comparative analysis of scores obtained by…

Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading (CBM-R) is often used to monitor student progress and guide educational decisions. Ordinary least squares regression (OLSR) is the most widely used method to estimate the slope, or rate of improvement (ROI), even though published research demonstrates OLSR's lack of validity and reliability, and…

In the present study, two types of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) tools in science, Vocabulary Matching (VM) and Statement Verification for Science (SV-S), a modified Sentence Verification Technique, were compared. Specifically, this study aimed to determine whether the format of information presented (i.e., SV-S vs. VM) produces differences…

Researchers have been keen to develop instruments for the assessment of teachers' self-perceived technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK); however, few studies have been conducted to validate such assessment tools through students' perspectives in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). The purpose of this study was thus to…

During the last 25 years researchers have proposed a number of conceptual frameworks to measure the various functions of instructional leadership. One of the most frequently used frameworks is the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS). Despite the great number of studies employing the PIMRS, evidence for its reliability and…