Chapters in this collection provide the perspectives of Caribbean educators on a variety of issues related to the theory and practice of education. Section 1, "Professional Development," contains these chapters: (1) "Is There Still Room for the Model Teacher?" (Sonia Jones); (2) "Using an In-Service Programme To Develop as…

A study was conducted to compare the psychometric qualities of two forms of an identical survey: one administered in a paper-and-pencil format and the other administered in Web format. The survey addressed the topic of college course anxiety and used to survey a sample of 236 undergraduate students. The psychometric qualities investigated included…

An instrument was developed to investigate the study behavior of high school students. Based on the Study Behavior Inventory (Bliss and Mueller, 1986), a measure designed to examine the study behaviors of college students, the Study Behavior Inventory-High School Version was developed through the contributions of 10 focus groups of high school…

This instrument development study had two goals. The first was to develop a measurement tool that would be valid for research and useful for assessment and intervention in classrooms. The second goal was to develop theory in the area of self-regulated learning. Results of preliminary research and study of the literature suggest that metacognitive…

This report is the product of the first year of study of the Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSI) Study on exploring data and methods to assess and understand the performance of states participating in the SSI. The report describes three sets of studies. The first studied valid and reliable measures of student achievement, and how to combine…

One of the tasks of the Council for School Performance is to implement measures of school safety to determine the impact of Georgia Lottery for Education expenditures. During the 1994-95 school year, the council pilot-tested several indicators of school safety. This document presents the results of an evaluation that examined the relevance,…

Continuing education students are usually mature students who have a wealth of experience from which their peers and the lecturer could profit. An effective teaching method with such students is the use of cooperative work assignments, but a problem that prevents lecturers from using this method is the difficulty of assigning grades to individual…

This paper focuses on how best to evaluate student achievement in science. Many issues such as issues of test construction, validity, and reliability, and how to measure hands-on achievement must be considered. Qualitative evaluations are harder to explain, but can yield valuable information. The use of portfolios is an example of a technique that…

The purposes of this study were to devise and provide validity and reliability data for scores on an instrument measuring attitudes toward school violence and to develop importance ratings of the items based on data from teachers in a high school that had experienced a highly publicized violent episode. Two independent samples were used. Based on…

This study investigated preservice, inservice, and college teachers' reasons for making assessment and grading decisions. A survey examined their perspectives about a case study that presented a grading dilemma in which a teacher, "Sarah", assigned grades based on criteria that were potentially invalid and unreliable. Participants analyzed the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of local item dependence (LID) in passage-based testlets on the test score reliability of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension test from the perspective of generalizability (G) theory. Definitions and causes of LID in passage-based testlets are reviewed within the…

This field memo is the third in a series of updates from the Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education to all teachers and administrators of public and nonpublic schools on standards and assessments in New York. This document explains how the New York State Education Department determines if test…

This study examined the generalizability and dependability of a performance-based assessment in algebra. Four forms of a five-item test were constructed using different subsets of eight items based on attributes from task analysis. Subjects included 142 "algebra 2" students from 2 high schools in the Midwestern United States and 148 11th…

This document contains the technical information for the 1998 Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), Grade 4 Assessment for Reading, Mathematics, Listening, and Writing. It documents the technical quality of the assessment, including the evidence for the reliability and validity of test scores. The manual's chapters are: (1)…

The validity of various reliability-corrected procedures for adjusting for initial differences between groups in uncontrolled studies is established for subjects exhibiting linear fan-spread growth. The results are then extended to a nonlinear model of growth. (Author)