Discusses topical relevance and situational relevance, which takes into account the impact of the retrieval system on the user, in the context of medicine. Topics addressed include scientific validity; limitations of current evaluation methodology, including recall and precision; and a framework for future retrieval research based on an…

To examine the validity of distinguishing children with reading disabilities according to discrepancy and low-achievement definitions, 4 assessments of expected achievement and 2 of actual achievement were obtained for 199 elementary school students. Results do not support the validity of the discrepancy versus the low-achievement definition.…

College students (175 females and 57 males) at 2 large universities completed the College Student Reasons for Living Inventory. Females endorsed reasons for living choices more strongly than males. Subjects self-reporting greater suicidal risk had a lower mean CSRFLI score than those at the lower level of suicidal risk. (FC)

Results of the fall 1993 administration of part two of the Medical Council of Canada's Evaluating Examination for 744 candidates provided evidence of the consistency of the pass/fail and cutting score definitions for the objective- structured clinical examination stations used across examiners. These results support the validity of this…

Examined the multivariate effects of various course characteristics on student ratings of faculty at a Hong Kong university. Data consisted of 4996 course average ratings from 25 departments over two academic years. Significant differences were found in student ratings across academic disciplines, class size groups, course levels, types of course,…

Study focused on the problems of curricular misalignment with placement tests used in community colleges. Findings indicate that while pre-test and post-test scores were highly aligned, there was little or no relationship between placement test scores and student performance in class, or between test content and skills emphasized in class. (PGS)

Compares the presumption of "validity" of student evaluation of teaching quality with: (1) results of studies at the University of Washington on the influence of grade expectation and workload on student ratings; (2) attempts at the University of Rochester to use agency theory to improve teaching quality; and (3) the peer review model…

This study examined test characteristics of the Pediatric Language Acquisition Screening Tool for Early Referral-Revised (PLASTER-R), a set of developmental questionnaires for children 3 to 60 months of age. The PLASTER-R was moderately to highly successful in identifying children within normal limits for language development. Test-retest…

Linking language assessments is a matter of greater concern with the advent of educational frameworks used to orient curricula and profile attainment. Outlines practical ways the principles of techniques recognized for linking separate assessments--equating, calibrating, statistical moderation, predicting (or benchmarking), and social moderation…

Presents the American Educational Research Association's position on high-stakes educational testing, which stresses conditions essential to sound implementation of such testing, including: protection against high-stakes decisions based on single tests; adequate resources and opportunity to learn; validation for each intended use; alignment…

Reviews evidence on reliability and validity of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ); presents CBQ data on structure of temperament in childhood. Factor analyses indicate three broad dimensions of temperament: extroversion/surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control. This factor structure also appears in ratings of children in…

Within-class experimental designs are subject to diffusion effects whereby both experimental and control students benefit from the intervention, thereby contaminating the control group and biasing evaluations of intervention effects. In support of diffusion effects, this study showed that a classroom intervention resulted in higher academic…

The usefulness of traditional concepts of validity and reliability, developed for large-scale assessments, for the classroom context is explored. Alternate frameworks that situate these constructs in teachers' work in classrooms are presented, and their use in an assessment course for preservice teachers is described. (SLD)

Three studies were conducted on the validity of instruments adopted for student assessment in problem-based learning at the Maastricht School of Economics and Business Administration (the Netherlands). Results with 109 students suggest the importance of the breadth and depth of the student's knowledge profile and the extent to which the knowledge…

Studied the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of scores on a Korean version of the Dimensions of Self-Concept Scale (W. Michael and R. Smith, 1976) with samples of 213, 191, and 213 junior high and high school students in Korea. Results generally support the internal consistency reliability and the construct validity of the…