A strategy for postgraduate admissions decisions based on employee recruitment and selection practices is described. Research at Otago University (New Zealand) concerning the predictive ability of the Graduate Management Admission Test is presented. An alternative strategy, Qualified Random Selection, is presented. (SK)

Examines the viability of replacing the conventional placement testing in mathematics with a self-assessment strategy. Describes a study of 63 adult students who completed one of two self-assessment inventories and a mathematics placement test. Found that there is a positive relationship between information provided by students on the…

Presents an analysis of the correlation between computerized placement test scores and subsequent academic performance for 74 2-year college students. Finds a low correlation between scores and course pass rates. Suggests that other qualitative measures be employed in addition to computerized testing to assess students. (12 citations) (BCY)

Describes a study comparing portfolio assessment to standardized test results and examining how both predicted subsequent academic achievement as indicated by grade point averages. Indicates that academic achievement could not be accurately predicted by any of three portfolio measures (that is, classwork, reading skills, or responses to text) or…

Constructed and tested for validity the Developmental Rating Scale (DRS), which uses teacher judgments about the academic development of children to evaluate student achievement. Teachers evaluated children at the pre-kindergarten, first-, and second-grade levels using the DRS and the Developmental Profile II (DPII). Found that the DRS, unlike the…

Describes the development of an instrument to assess teachers' context beliefs about using technology in the classroom based on a study of teachers in a professional development program on technology integration. Highlights include capability beliefs; context beliefs; personal agency belief patterns; content validity; and construct and predictive…

The early childhood educational field has garnered attention with initiatives to foster skill acquisition in young children prior to kindergarten entry. These initiatives, in conjunction with the rigorous demands of curricular reform and a burgeoning accountability movement, invoke questions regarding the adequacy of the instruments used to assess…

This study compares two instruments frequently used to assess risk for violence, the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) and the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), in a large sample of civil psychiatric patients. Despite a strong bivariate relationship with community violence, the VRAG could not improve on the predictive validity…

Objective: The research was conducted to determine the relationship between violent trauma, child abuse history, and dissociative symptoms in a Russian population. Method: Three hundred and one undergraduate students from Moscow State Linguistics University participated in the study and completed the Dissociation Continuum Scale, the Violence…

The purpose of the present study was to determine choral students' ability to predict and evaluate their sight-singing skills. Participants were asked to assign a rating based on how well they predicted they would sight-sing five musical examples. Following the singing of each example, participants were asked to evaluate their sight-singing…

The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric characteristics of a phonological awareness assessment for prekindergarten children using Messick's (1989) framework for unitary construct validity. Upon entry into prekindergarten, children were given rhyme discrimination, syllable segmentation, initial phoneme isolation, and phoneme…

The psychometric properties of the Self-Report Depression Questionnaire (SRDQ) were evaluated, extending a previous assessment of this instrument. Data from two independent studies (Esbensen, 2004; Seltzer & Krauss, 1989) were pooled to generate a sample of 192 individuals with primarily mild or moderate mental retardation. Reliability estimates…

A major advance in the field of reading over the past 15 years has been the development and validation of screening measures that can detect with reasonable accuracy those kindergartners and first graders likely to experience difficulty in learning to read. Increasingly, these students now receive additional instructional support during the…

This study used principles underlying item generation theory to posit competing perspectives about which features of situational judgment tests might enhance or impede consistent measurement across repeat test administrations. This led to 3 alternate-form development approaches (random assignment, incident isomorphism, and item isomorphism). The…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the construct and predictive ability of a German version of the Learning Transfer Systems Inventory (GLTSI), an instrument designed to assess a constellation of 16 factors known to influence the transfer of training in work settings. Design/methodology/approach: The survey data for this study was…