The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test assesses achievement in students in grades K-12, with subtests in reading, mathematics reasoning, spelling, reading comprehension, numerical operations, listening comprehension, oral expression, and written expression. The test was developed to assist in identification of students with learning…

The place of peer review in the process by which the Australian Research Council allocates funds under the Large Grants Scheme, the primary funding source for basic research, is examined. Validity and reliability of peer review, the decision-making process, and cost effectiveness of the procedures are considered. (MSE)

Six medical school faculty evaluated the overall performance of eight students completing a surgery clerkship at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Students were also evaluated by the National Board of Medical Examiners' Computer Based Examination (CBX). Faculty ratings correlated highly with scores produced by the CBX's…

The article examines the concepts of power and control in research design and applies them to a review of the validity of three studies (EC 600 064-066) evaluating the effectiveness of using Irlen tinted lenses with reading-disabled persons. Internal validity, external validity, statistical conclusion validity, and construct validity are…

After 98 lecture and 43 course evaluations, rating scales used by students to evaluate faculty at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) were subjected to factor analysis. It was found that pooling ratings from different teaching situations made possible preparation of a teaching performance profile improving the information's reliability…

Considers the mutual relevance of four themes: cultural diversity, construct validity, population generalizability, and professional ethics. Addresses the expanding need for sustained efforts to articulate the complex issues and emerging implications of the new realities of human diversity. Includes a review of previous literature, an assessment…

The construct validity of a new measure of children's exposure to print, the Title Recognition Test (TRT), was assessed with 34 fourth, 33 fifth, and 67 sixth graders. The TRT demonstrated significant correlations with spelling, vocabulary, verbal fluency, word knowledge, and general information. (SLD)

Methods for evaluating the validity of job analysis data derived from activity inventories are proposed. The basic approach is to state assumptions about expected relationships and then check to see whether these relationships exist. The approach is illustrated through a survey of 38 nurses. (SLD)

Parent and teacher ratings on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist with an outpatient sample of 110 children, adolescents, and young adults with mental retardation found that the 5-factor structure of both parent and teacher data corresponded very well with the 5 factors originally obtained from staff ratings of mentally retarded inpatients. (Author/DB)

This study evaluated 9 computer-generated measures of children's language production, based on 24 children with specific language impairment and 24 normally developing children, ages 24-50 months. Three measures possessed desirable developmental and diagnostic characteristics: mean syntactic length, total number of words, and number of different…

Psychological variables influencing adjustment to acquired visual loss are examined conceptually and empirically, to clarify their role in skill acquisition and to develop a testable model of adjustment. The Nottingham Adjustment Scale, which measures anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and other characteristics, is presented, along with analysis of…

This study assessed the adaptation of the Heidelberger-Kompetenz-Inventar (HKI) procedure for use with severely mentally handicapped young people in the German Democratic Republic. The HKI, which covers cognitive, social, and practical competencies and behavioral abilities, was found to be a sensitive and valid method of assessing changes achieved…

Computer simulations were run to measure the relationship between testlet validity and factors of item pool size and testlet length for both adaptive and linearly constructed testlets. Making a testlet adaptive yields only modest increases in aggregate validity because of the peakedness of the typical proficiency distribution. (Author/SLD)

Assessed reliability and validity of Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSES). Findings from 233 community college students who completed CDMSES, Career Maturity Inventory, Decision-Making Scale of the Career Development Inventory, and demographic questionnaire generally support reliability and validity of CDMSES as measure of community…

A kindergarten screening battery of 4 well-validated commercial instruments was used to predict educational placement of 519 white and 183 American Indian children. The battery predicted educational placement equally for both groups, but it correctly identified only 39% of the special education students. (Author/JDD)