An instrument was developed to investigate the study behavior of high school students. Based on the Study Behavior Inventory (Bliss and Mueller, 1986), a measure designed to examine the study behaviors of college students, the Study Behavior Inventory-High School Version was developed through the contributions of 10 focus groups of high school…

This policy brief addresses the inclusion of English language learners (ELLs) in large-scale assessments and ELL assessment accommodations. The inclusion of ELL students creates specific accountability policy challenges. States differ in the students they include and their inclusion policies and accommodation practices, and, at present, inclusion…

The Rasch Model is an item response theory, one parameter model developed that states that the probability of a correct response is a function of the difficulty of the item and the ability of the candidate. Item banking is useful for language testing. The Rasch Model provides estimates of item difficulties that are meaningful, irrespective of…

This study examined the role of affect and conation in high school students science test performance, using a sample of 491 students. It provides a profile of partial corrections of standardized multiple-choice and constructed response test scores with affect and conation scores (after accounting for general ability and student background) at…

This instrument development study had two goals. The first was to develop a measurement tool that would be valid for research and useful for assessment and intervention in classrooms. The second goal was to develop theory in the area of self-regulated learning. Results of preliminary research and study of the literature suggest that metacognitive…

Service-learning courses focus on both service experience and academic learning. Academic content is covered in both the classroom and the service experience, and the service experiences are reflected upon and processed in the classroom. Based on educational values, potential outcomes can be classified as development of personal competence,…

A systematic series of studies by De Bock et al. revealed a strong, deep-rooted tendency among secondary school students to apply the proportional model in non-proportional problems involving lengths, areas and volumes of similar geometrical figures. In these studies, however, items were used involving direct measures for area and volume as well…

Whether performance assessments can be claimed to be more inclusive than traditional assessments was studied in an investigation of whether a student's perceptions of control can be detected in a performance assessment score. It was hypothesized that students' perceptions of control would show no effect on their scores on an objective test of…

One of the tasks of the Council for School Performance is to implement measures of school safety to determine the impact of Georgia Lottery for Education expenditures. During the 1994-95 school year, the council pilot-tested several indicators of school safety. This document presents the results of an evaluation that examined the relevance,…

As schools move toward performance assessment, there is increasing discussion of using these assessments for accountability purposes. When used for making decisions, performance assessments must meet high standards of validity and reliability. One major source of unreliability in performance assessments is interrater disagreement. In this paper,…

This paper compares two methods of establishing content validity, forced-choice judgmental review and a latent category judgmental review. It also compares content validity evidence with the results of a scale reliability analysis and makes recommendations of the two content validity procedures. Two different groups of graduate students enrolled…

This paper describes the development of a student rating of teaching effectiveness (SRTE) instrument by Saint Leo College (Florida). The instrument was based on Cashin's (1989) seven dimensional model of college teaching: subject matter mastery, curriculum development, course design, delivery of instruction, assessment of student learning,…

Judgmental standard setting approaches rely on the perceptions of experts about examinee performance on a test. Traditional standard setting methods ask panelists to predict the probability that a randomly selected, hypothetical minimally competent candidate (MCC) will correctly answer test questions. Item performance predictions are difficult for…

Interest assessment typically consists of a person indicating whether he or she likes, dislikes, or is indifferent to a task. A more appropriate technology for career interest assessment is needed and one such program is presented. Interest assessment in career counseling has been based on the concept of the "discriminant bridge" developed by…

This paper reports on an assessment of the cognitive skills section of the "Test of Communication Knowledge." The test was designed by Dr. Rebecca B. Rubin to evaluate learning by undergraduate communication majors in the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University (Ohio). In particular, the test is based on a set of…