The paradox that a Student t-test based on pretest-posttest differences can attain its greatest power when the difference score reliability is zero was explained by demonstrating that power is not a mathematical function of reliability unless either true score variance or error score variance is constant. (SLD)

Describes investigation utilizing sickle cell disease subjects from a stress and coping project. Found little stability in classification of individuals' adjustment, low congruence in behavior problem patterns and diagnoses, and less stability in adjustment by child report than mother report. Suggests children's coping strategies are intervention…

A school system cannot restructure or transform itself without trust. The process demands a shared belief system--belief in the leadership, the integrity of all participants, the vision they develop, and agreed-upon goals. An essential part of earning trust is communicating with the community. (MLH)

Tests the hypotheses that overconfidence occurs when strength is high and weight is low and that underconfidence occurs when weight is high and strength is low in 4 experiments with 153 students. Discusses weighing evidence, overconfidence/underconfidence in intuitive judgments, and item difficulty's effect on overconfidence. Relates the…

Presents preliminary psychometric data for two inventories that assess conflict in couples. Discusses factor structure of items, internal consistency and one-year stability of composite scores, relationship between couple members' composite scores, and link between composite scores and relationship satisfaction, change in satisfaction, and…

Discussion of data quality examines five approaches to defining data in the literature; considers criteria of adequacy; proposes a modeling activity; discusses the most important dimensions of data quality, including accuracy, precision and reliability, currentness, completeness, and consistency; and suggests further research. (Contains 44…

Proposes a new method, reliability generalization, for meta-analysis. Reliability generalization characterizes the typical reliability of scores for a test across studies, the amount of variability in reliability coefficients, and the sources of this variability. Analysis of 87 reliability coefficients for two scales of the Bem Sex Role Inventory…

The factor structure of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) (M. Kovacs, 1992) was evaluated in a community sample of 1777 children and 924 adolescents. There were five first-order factors for the child group, and the same five plus one more for the adolescents. Results support the stability and predictability of the obtained factor…

The reliability and validity of the Perceived Occupational Opportunity Scale and Perceived Occupational Discrimination Scale were tested with 231 black undergraduates. Additional support was obtained using data from 105 black and 72 white high school students. (SK)

Examined the degree to which coefficient alpha is affected by including items with different distribution shapes within a unidimensional scale. Computer simulation results indicate that reliability does not increase dramatically as a result of using differentially shaped items within a scale. Discusses implications for test construction. (SLD)

Presents a scale to measure teacher sense of work autonomy with evidence for its score replicability. Results of replicability analyses (cross validation and validity generalization) involving 156 Israeli elementary school teachers and 650 Israeli elementary and secondary school teachers suggest four areas of functioning pertinent to teachers'…

Yen and Burket suggested that shrinkage in vertical equating cannot be understood apart from multidimensionality. Reviews research on reliability, multidimensionality, and scale shrinkage, and explores issues of practical importance to educators. (SLD)

Reexamines the reliability and validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised (PIAT-R) and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) Written Expression scoring systems, applying theory and more appropriate statistical analyses. The WIAT written-expression scoring system was found to have more items that were both reliable and…

Reviews and integrates existing child and adolescent Hand Test research for use with school systems. Examines reliability and validity of the instrument along with moderating variables that impact interpretation. Favorably views the Hand Test as a brief protective technique that can easily be integrated into school psychologists' test battery.…

Proposes a method for obtaining standard errors and confidence intervals of composite reliability coefficients based on bootstrap methods and using a structural-equation-modeling framework for estimating the composite reliability of congeneric measures (T. Raykov, 1997). Demonstrates the approach with simulated data. (SLD)