A study was conducted to investigate the degree to whicb subjects could be trained to improve the reliability of their diagnostic decisions about cases of reading difficulties. Twenty-eight graduate students enrolled in a reading diagnosis course were trained from G. B. Sherman's Model of Reading and Learning to Read, and practiced on simulated…

Accountability has become a concern for public mental health programs, including the Hawaii State Mental Health Division which relies on the Multi-State Information System (MSIS) for program planning and evaluation. Accuracy in reporting and agreement in clinical judgment on the MSIS has been assumed but never tested until an analogue study was…

This report provides a complete guide to the stand alone mode operation of the reliability and maintenance (R&M) model, which was developed to facilitate the performance of design versus cost trade-offs within the digital avionics information system (DAIS) acquisition process. The features and structure of the model, its input data…

A framework is presented that relates concepts of audit reliability to the uses of information gathered from a discrepancy program audit of Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title IV-C programs in Florida. Three issues are addressed: (1) the meaning of reliability in relation to the audit process; (2) the importance of reliability of auditor…

A general process for testing the feasibility of applying alternative mathematical or statistical models to the solution of a practical problem is presented and flowcharted. The system is used to compare five models for test equating: (1) anchor test equating using classical test theory; (2) anchor test equating using the one-parameter logistic…

The methodology employed in 14 motivational orientation studies was reviewed. All studies used either the Education Participation Scale, the Continuing Learning Orientation Index or the Reasons for Educational Participation Scale. Issues discussed concerned factor scoring, factor analysis, rotation, scaling, reliability, and the extent to which…

The psychophysical technique of magnitude estimation was used to develop a ratio scale of subjective estimations of adult learning in various adult education activities. A rank order of 26 learning activities and the magnitude estimations in "units of learning" that are expected to occur in each activity were obtained from 146 adult education…

Starting with a set of existing goals, use of the Delphi technique to establish educational goals in this investigation assumed: convergence in perception over rounds, greater convergence on the second round than on later rounds, the reliability of ranking of goals produced, the necessity of at least three rounds, and the desirability of feedback…

This report describes the third year of the national Follow Through Classroom Observation study. The aims of the study were: (1) to assess program implementation at one site for each of 12 sponsors; (2) to search out the relationships between child outcomes and teaching-learning processes; and (3) to estimate which programs incorporate processes…

This text was developed on an autoinstructional basis to familiarize the reader with the various interpretations of reliability and validity, their measurement and evaluation, and factors influencing their measurement. The text enables those with prior knowledge of statistics to increase their understanding of variance and correlation. Review…

This study sought, through a factor analysis of 450 masculine-feminine (MF) items from nine established sources such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), to determine whether in a college sample of 523 students there were a small number of factors common to both sexes, or if the MF scale consisted of so many weak factors that…

A research study was conducted to: (1) compare mother and father interactions with their newborn infant; (2) examine the effects of maternal drugs on mother-father infant interaction; (3) explore the impact of variations in length of labor on parent interaction; and (4) examine sex of parent and sex of newborn interactions to determine the nature…

A comparison of college faculty self-evaluation and evaluation by students at the University of Queensland, and the effect of student evaluations on instruction, found wide discrepancies between student and teacher perceptions of instruction for both highly and poorly rated teachers, but general positive faculty attitudes about evaluation and…

The quality of reading comprehension and mathematics instruction was explored in five urban middle schools using the Instructional Quality Assessment (IQA) toolkit (N = 34 teachers). The IQA is comprised of protocols for rating observed instruction and the quality of teachers' assignments with student work. The purpose of this research was to…

As part of an effort to monitor the transformation of classrooms within Limpopo Province, South Africa, an instrument was developed to assess students perceptions of their learning environments. The developed questionnaire, the Outcomes-Based Learning Environment Questionnaire (OBLEQ), was designed to measure the impact of the Curriculum 2005…