The content of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act is described, its current interpretations are examined, and the implications for developing a responsible language and citizenship curriculum to conform to the legislation are discussed. Specific attention is focused on the law's requirement that illegal aliens applying for amnesty and…

This book addresses some of the important considerations surrounding the use of tests and assessment procedures when applied to students who are culturally, linguistically, and/or socioeconomically different from mainstream North Americans. Chapter 1 introduces the problems of using standards based on a white Anglo-Saxon perspective to assess and…

The reliability and validity of the Teaching Behaviours Scale (TBS) were examined using a sample of 40 male and female student teachers. The TBS was designed as a self-administered rating scale to evaluate one's teaching effectiveness. The five-point rating scale contains 22 items covering six categories: reinforcement, feedback, presentation,…

Administering measures of students' ethical orientation at various points in the education of business students would be helpful in determining the affective impact of the curriculum. Procedures for eliminating item bias and maximizing the validity and reliability of such measures are discussed and illustrated through actual data collected in the…

The reliability, sensitivity, and criterion-related validity of concept comparison (CC) ratings and computer-derived multidimensional scaling (MDS) maps were studied as ways of assessing reading comprehension. Fifteen experts (2 district coordinators and 13 reading specialists/special education teachers) were included in this study. Reliability…

This research study investigates the validity of the Teacher Locus of Control Scale (TLCS) in a different cultural environment. The scale, developed in the United States by Taylor et al., measures teachers' beliefs about their own potential to influence student performance and classroom events. Specifically, the study investigates the…

Pronunciation is regarded as a valuable subskill in foreign language teaching and testing. Its quality is commonly assessed in a global way by having examinees read aloud. An atomistic test is a more systematic and explicit approach. Such a test would consist of about 40 items, use recorded performances, and draw on an inventory of pronunciation…

This paper describes the development, validation, and use of a research instrument, the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), designed to assess the environment of small higher education classrooms. The instrument evaluates students' or instructors' perceptions of the following seven psychosocial dimensions of actual or…

The validity and reliability of the Institutional Performance Survey (IPS) as an institutional self-study instrument were assessed, with a focus on four types of validity (content, face, construct, and concurrent) and three types of reliability (test-retest, internal consistency, and rater reliability). It was found that IPS appears to reasonably…

A sample of slightly over 1,500 students drawn from even-numbered grades in public schools of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) were given the 1973 edition of the Stanford Achievement Test (grades 2, 4, 6, and 8) and the Test of Academic Skills (grades 10 and 12) in an attempt to assess student academic achievement in the basic skill areas of…

This study investigated the measurement integrity of the "Heart Smart" cognitive tests. Designed for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, the tests measure health-related knowledge involving physiology, nutrition, exercise, and behavioral skills. The report presents tables of specifications, test floors and ranges, a demographic profile of…

Two separate sets of minimum standards designed to guide the evaluation of bilingual projects are proposed. The first set relates to the process in which the evaluation activities are conducted. They include: validity of assessment procedures, validity and reliability of evaluation instruments, representativeness of findings, use of procedures for…

A study examined the relationship between types of miscues made by readers during oral reading and the errors made by the same readers on a cloze task. Subjects were 79 third and 78 fifth grade students in eight intact classrooms. Both the oral reading miscues and the cloze replacements were categorized using a modification of Y. Goodman's miscue…

The purpose of this study was to review and evaluate the Basic Inventory of Natural Language (BINL) to help determine whether it should continue to be used in Honolulu's Students of Limited English Proficiency (SLEP) Program. The study looked at four critical aspects of the BINL: its content validity, its test-retest reliability, its effectiveness…

The lack of a German language testing instrument for economic literacy has led to problems for researchers in German-speaking countries to establish the level of economic literacy in those countries. The translation of the 23rd edition (1987) of the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) into a German version, known as the Wirtschalfliche Bildung Test…