Mackintosh and Bennett's [Mackintosh, N. J. and Bennett, E. S, (2005). ''What do Raven's Matrices measure? An analysis in terms of sex differences.'' Intelligence 33: 663-674.] study shows that males outperform females in some APM items but not in others, implicating that these items are measuring discriminable mental processes. The present…

An interactive Web site was developed and investigated to determine whether interaction on the site among college and high school teachers of writing could result in the formation of an interpretative community. An interpretative community is one in which meanings are stable (Fish, 1980), and which adjudicates student writing with a high degree of…

Resources matter. How well schools and districts use their people, time, and money is often even more important than how much they receive. Education Resource Strategies' extensive research with districts and schools shows that despite differences in school level, size, location, student population, or even instructional focus, high-performing…

This study is a preliminary examination of the reliability of frequent retrospective teacher behavior ratings. Frequent retrospective behavior ratings are an approach for creating scales that can be used to monitor individual behavioral progress. In this study, the approach is used to progress monitor behavioral individualized education plan goals…

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 emphasized the use of positive behavioral interventions, supports, and services for students with disabilities who display challenging behaviors. Unfortunately, most teachers and schools still lack systems for identification, adoption, and sustained use of these…

The reliability and validity of teacher ratings, the relationship between teacher ratings and principal self-reports of instructional leadership, and the degree to which they are influenced by demographic factors are examined in this study. Methodology involved completion of the Instructional Leadership Inventory, a self-report measure, by 81…

This report shows how Beta weights for the J-Coefficient may be easily developed without a formal validity study, and indicates how indications of ability other than tests can be used to measure the same abilities that are measured by tests. See also TM 001 163-64,166 for further information on job elements (J-Scale) procedures. (Author/DLG)

Perhaps more than ever before, college teaching is being studied and evaluated. This paper describes the development of a simple descriptive instrument used to focus observers' classifications and ratings of college teachers' instructional behaviors as recorded on video tape. The need for such an instrument is reviewed, the methodology for testing…

Some probabilistic illustrations of the reliability coefficient are provided to assist in interpretation of this measure. All explanations are derived under the assumption that the joint distribution of examinee scores from two parallel tests is well approximated by a bivariate normal distribution.

This study was designed to: (1) assess the influence of an instructional set given to an observer regarding the presence or absence of a predictable pattern in the observed interaction, (2) extend and replicate findings of a previous study of observer accuracy, and (3) identify some of the specific types of errors made by observers in coding…

Observer reliability and number of behaviors rated were compared following two types of observer training: (1) training of observers by one individual, and (2) self-training, or each pair of observers training itself. Results suggest that more adequate standards for the training of observers and the reporting of observer reliability be adopted by…

The accuracy of the large sample standard error of weighted kappa appropriate to the non-null case was studied by computer simulation for the hypothesis that two independently derived estimates of weighted kappa are equal, and for setting confidence limits around a single value of weighted kappa. (Author/CTM)

A formula is derived for ascertaining factor scores for the factor analytic method: Little Jiffy, Mark IV. This formula is then employed to derive a second formula giving an exact determination of the generalized Kuder-Richardson estimate of the reliability of scores on a Little Jiffy factor. (Author/JKS)

Surveyed 65 couples beginning marital therapy and 37 couples from the community to examine interspousal reliability on reports of marital violence. Agreement between partners on the occurrence of violence was low to moderate for both samples. Husbands underreported their violent behavior, and/or wives tended to overreport violence performed by…