This study investigates the value of reporting the reading, listening, speaking, and writing section scores for the "TOEFL iBT"® test, focusing on 4 related aspects of the psychometric quality of the TOEFL iBT section scores: reliability of the section scores, dimensionality of the test, presence of distinct score profiles, and the…

Problem statement: A significant decrease has been recently observed in the resources for education allocated from Turkey's public budget, despite the increasing number of teachers and students. It is possible to better observe this trend at the primary education stage, which is compulsory and free at public schools through law no 42 under the…

The nutrition environment in schools can influence the risk for childhood overweight and obesity, which in turn can have life-long implications for risk of chronic disease. This dissertation aimed to examine the nutrition environment in primary public schools in California with regards to the amount of nutrition education provided in the…

The aim of the current study is twofold: (a) to investigate the rates at which researchers assess and report on the psychometric properties of the measures they use in their research and (b) to examine whether or not researchers appear to be generally employing sound/unsound rationales when it comes to how they conduct test evaluations. Based on a…

This study examined whether teacher portfolios can be validly and reliably assessed by investigating the effect of an instructional tool on increasing the level of reflective thinking in elementary preservice teachers' portfolios. It also examined whether reflective thinking in preservice teachers' electronic portfolios represented sufficient…

The current article presents the findings on the development of a student evaluation instrument in which course evaluation is directly tied to student learning outcomes. With a committee consisting of instructors from six distinct disciplines brought together as part of a working group for this purpose, the instrument was developed utilizing…

Previous systematic reviews indicate a lack of reporting of reliability and validity evidence in subsets of the medical education literature. Psychology and general education reviews of factor analysis also indicate gaps between current and best practices; yet, a comprehensive review of exploratory factor analysis in instrument development across…

An instrument comprising sixteen original vignettes was field tested to gather evidence of their validity and reliability in measuring heterosexist attitudes among educators. Two-hundred seventy pre-service and in-service teachers and counselors completed the instrument. The items were analyzed using statistical methods informed from Classical…

Few studies of adult playfulness exist, but limited research on older adults and playfulness suggests that playfulness in later life improves cognitive, emotional, social, and psychological functioning and healthy aging overall. Older adults represent a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, underscoring the need to understand the aging…

This article reports on the development and validation of the English Diagnostic Test of Grammar (EDiT Grammar) for Japanese learners of English. From among the many aspects of grammar, this test focuses on the knowledge of basic English noun phrases (NPs), especially their internal structures, because previous research has indicated the…

State test scores administered for accountability purposes are regularly used to adjust instruction in nuanced ways. This is no accident--No Child Left Behind demanded that students' scores be returned quickly to teachers in order that this might be the case, and the idea of data-driven decision making continues as one way the promise of education…

This article describes the development of an ethics scale that measures adherence to social work ethical choices in specific situations. The purpose of this instrument is to provide data that demonstrate adherence to curriculum standards as set forth by the Council on Social Work Education. The authors present the conceptual framework from which…

The Census Bureau has historically grouped high school diploma holders along with those who hold "high school equivalent" credentials. Among these is the credential earned through successfully passing the General Education Development (GED) test. Interest in identifying those with GEDs has recently increased, in part from debate within…

There is a growing consensus that teacher evaluation in the United States is fundamentally broken. Few would argue that a system that tells 98 percent of teachers they are "satisfactory" benefits anyone--including teachers. The nation's collective failure to invest in high-quality professional feedback to teachers is inconsistent with…

Research has long been clear that teachers matter more to student learning than any other in-school factor. Improving the quality of teaching is critical to student success. Yet only recently have many states and districts begun to take seriously the importance of evaluating teacher performance and providing teachers with the feedback they need to…