In tertiary institutions in Australia, and no doubt elsewhere, there is increasing pressure for accountability. No longer are academics assumed "a priori" to be responsible and capable of self management in teaching and assessing the subjects they run. Procedures are being dictated more from the "top down". Although academics…

This article documents the development, factor structure, and psychometric properties of the parent- and youth-report forms of the Child Obsessive Compulsive Impact Scale-Revised (COIS-R), a measure of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)-specific functional impairment. Using a sample of 250 youth (M age = 11.7, 54% male, 80% Caucasian) diagnosed…

College drinking behavior is a national public health concern. However, little research has been conducted to test the psychometric validity and reliability of alcohol use measures among Spanish-speaking Hispanic college students. Adopting a translation-back-translation approach, the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) was translated into Spanish…

This dissertation study examined the reliability and validity claims of a modified version of the Spanish Modern Language Association Foreign Language Proficiency Test for Teachers and Advanced Students administered at George Mason University (GMU). The study used the 1999 computerized GMU version that was administered to 277 test-takers via…

Background: This study describes the development of the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI)--a computer-assisted telephone interview which adapts the revised Ontario Child Health Study's (OCHS-R) parent, teacher, and youth self-report scales for administration as intake screening and treatment outcome measures in children's mental…

A study investigated possible causes of high percentages of students failing the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test (ONGPT) in mathematics. The validity of the math test may be questionable. The reading and math scores of over 200 ninth-grade students from a rural school in northwest Ohio were used as a basis. Only scores from the fall of 1991,…

A scale was developed to assess several types of motivation in elementary school children. In addition to the usually recognized internal and external motivation, a third type, termed "amotivation," has been postulated. Students are amotivated when they do not perceive a link between outcomes and their own actions. The preliminary…

The first study described in this paper estimates the reliability of the four subscale versions of the 40-item Computer Attitude Scale (CAS), an instrument designed to measure attitudes toward learning about and using computers. It provides detailed information about the factor patterns of CAS subscales and evidence of the differential validity of…

This book provides the schedules, scales, and procedures for systematic assessment of child care environments. It also suggests the way to develop a scale oriented to the physical environment. The introduction notes that of various scales available for describing and evaluating different aspects of child care programs and centers, many scales are…

It is generally assumed that test administrators are accurate and dependable, and that the psychometric properties of validity and reliability applied to test givers are at acceptably high levels. The test giver is thought to have been standardized through training reinforced by experience. This paper considers validity and reliability in relation…

The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) is the most widely used instrument of its type in existence. The inventory is individually administered and can be used with high school students, college students, and adults. It is typically used in vocational counseling. The new 1994 version resembles the original published in 1927 both in the construction of…

The question of reliability in the intellectual assessment of young children is cause for concern among developmental psychologists and diagnosticians. The issue of reliability is confounded by normal variability in skills during early childhood, by the problem of consistency across time of age-appropriate assessment measures, and by the selection…

To address the need for writing assessment tools, two analytic measures for evaluating managerial writing were used: the Analysis of Argument Measure based on Toulmin's (1958) elements of an argument, and the Persuasive Adaptiveness Measure, which draws on the Delia, Kline, and Burleson (1979) ranking system for scoring the degree of social…

This paper reports on evaluations of a projective measure of self-esteem adapted from the Tasks of Emotional Development (TED). The evaluations were conducted in 7 studies with a total sample of 416 children and adults. The revised TED uses a five-point scoring system ranging from negative to positive self-esteem. Interrater reliability in the…

Early intervention has shifted in focus to family centered assessment and treatment. The Comprehensive Evaluation of Family Functioning was developed to meet the need for accurate family assessment, but limited psychometric information on the measure is available. The present research investigated the psychometric properties of the CEFF with a…