Atkinson and Geiser (2009) make a strong argument for moving to a new form of college admissions testing using curriculum-based achievement tests. In making their case, however, they exaggerate the weaknesses of current tests such as the ACT and SAT by minimizing these tests' predictive utility and claiming a stronger relationship to socioeconomic…

The actuarial method is the gold standard for risk assessment in child welfare, juvenile justice, and criminal justice. It produces risk classifications that are highly predictive and that may be robust to sampling error. This article reports a revalidation study of the Arizona Risk/Needs Assessment instrument, an actuarial instrument for juvenile…

In this study, a dynamic assessment was used to measure the morphological analysis skills of participating sixth graders. The primary aim of this research was to examine the utility of this dynamic assessment and specifically to identify whether this measure can differentiate among students based on reading proficiency. Twenty-seven…

The Texas Projection Measure (TPM) has grown out of the state's need to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). An examination of the state's method of predicting 8th grade mathematics scores reveals that several factors have been ignored in the process of developing the model, including assumptions in its underlying statistical…

The formula is simple: Highly effective teachers equal student academic success. Yet, the physics of American education is anything but. Thus, the question facing education reformers is how can teacher effectiveness be accurately measured in order to improve the teacher workforce? Given the demand for objective, quantitative measures of teacher…

The concurrent validities of 3 short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) were compared for their prediction of full-scale IQ for 145 male and 159 female psychiatric inpatients. Results support previous research showing better predictive accuracy for L. C. Ward's (1990) seven-subtest short form than the others. (SLD)

Describes the development of an instrument to assess teachers' context beliefs about using technology in the classroom based on a study of teachers in a professional development program on technology integration. Highlights include capability beliefs; context beliefs; personal agency belief patterns; content validity; and construct and predictive…

The present study examined the psychometric properties of scores from a direct measure of behavioral regulation, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS) with 3- to 6-year-old children in the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Specifically, we investigated (a) the nature and variability of HTKS scores, including relations to…

Increasing attention is being given to the psychometric adequacy of recently published structured child interviews. Three published child interviews, The Child Assessment Schedule (CAS), The Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA), and The Interview Schedule for Children (ISC) were evaluated in terms of the available evidence of…

To verify assumptions concerning content validity and to qualify relationships between tests and criteria, three validation studies of the United States Employment Service Dictation, Spelling, and Typing Tests were carried out in cooperation with 18 State Employment Services. Study I, validation of the Spelling and Dictation Tests, revealed a…

Data from five separate samples were weighted using the vertical percent method (England) and the rare response method (Telenson, Alexander, and Barrett) to investigate their relative effectiveness for scoring biographical information blanks. Vertical percent scoring yielded significant validity coefficients for all samples, while rare response…

The abstinence violation effect (AVE) proposed in Marlatt and Gordon's model of smoking relapse was operationalized as a combination of internal, stable, and global causal attributions for smoking following the attainment of abstinence from smoking. Smoking cessation program participants who relapsed following a slip reported significantly higher…

This paper summarizes much of the available information concerning the reliability and validity of the Tests of General Educational Development (GED Tests). The data suggest that the results are sufficiently reliable for continued use and that the validity evidence generally supports the intended uses of the tests. (Author/LMO)