The various methods for computing the reliability of scores on Advanced Placement (AP) examinations are summarized. For the free response portion of the examinations, raters can contribute to score unreliability through both systematic severity errors (in which some raters consistently rate more severely than other raters) and through…

The Pupil Control Ideology Form (PCI) is one of the major instruments used by researchers interested in the study of school climate. Pupil control is a central feature of the organizational life of schools, and each school appears to have a prevailing ideology of pupil control. The PCI is a self-report instrument used to measure an educator's…

Recently, there has been a significant expansion in the use of performance assessment in large scale testing programs. Although there has been significant support from curriculum and policy stakeholders, the technical feasibility of large scale performance assessments has remained a question. This report is intended to contribute to the debate by…

Year after year, students, teachers, administrators, politicians, and parents are faced with the dilemma of reading assessment. Sheila Valencia (1990) feels that reading assessment has become a hot topic because the outcome tends to differ from school to school. Evaluations should be authentic and trustworthy. Roger Farr (1992) has noted that the…

Data from performance measures that were part of two foreign language teacher certification examinations were used in a generalizability study of the quality of their performance ratings. A total of 775 examinees from the Spanish K-12 and 192 examinees from the French K-12 subject area tests of the Florida Teacher Certification Examinations were…

This paper argues that special procedures for constructing assessment tools containing performance assessment tasks are unnecessary and that current test methodology can easily be generalized to complex performance assessment tasks without destroying the desirable characteristics of those tasks. Reasonable statistical requirements for sound…

Assessment has always played an important role in counseling. This book provides information about the various psychological assessment procedures that are relevant for practicing counselors. The text deals with the use of tests that are most often employed by counselors and it includes case studies. Its purpose is to help counselors become better…

The implementation of the Dallas (Texas) Public Schools 1995-96 Title I PK-2 reading and language arts portfolio entailed monitoring and data collection to determine the student outcomes and the technical quality of the instrument. A total of 2,001 portfolios were reviewed for prekindergarten through grade 2. The components were generally in place…

The predictive power of the Split-Half version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised (WISC-R) Object Assembly (OA) subtest was compared to that of the full administration of the OA subtest. A cohort of 218 male and 49 female adolescent offenders detained in a Texas juvenile detention facility between 1990 and 1992 was used. The…

Most training programs in education and psychology focus on classical test theory techniques for assessing score dependability. This paper discusses generalizability theory and explores its concepts using a small heuristic data set. Generalizability theory subsumes and extends classical test score theory. It is able to estimate the magnitude of…

"Pickleball" is a new racquet sport which is one of the fastest growing educational activities in the Northwest. This paper describes the development of a test battery designed to measure students' pickleball skills for purposes of classification; to determine improvement of playing skills; and to aid in grading of individual…

A "Fundamentals of Speech Communication" course is required of all college students, and upon completion of such a course students should possess those basic speaking and listening skills necessary to complete successfully their college educations. With a view toward developing a new, more effective listening test, a study examined…

The development and validation of a scale to assess English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners' perceived self-efficacy are described. Self-efficacy expectations are beliefs about one's ability to perform a given task successfully. Research on self-efficacy and related concepts is reviewed, noting their significant role in predictor human…

Despite its supposed importance, children's emergent interest in literacy has been seldom studied. As a result, no easy-to-use and psychometrically sound measure of children's emergent interest in literacy exists. This study made an initial attempt at validating such a measure. On three separate occasions, 24 parents and their 2- to 3-year-old…

The effects of two different approaches to training community nurses in patient self-care were evaluated. In an intensive workshop, 36 nurses were trained, and 19 of them received further personal guidance 11 times during a 6-month period. Their performance was assessed before the educational intervention, after the workshop, and after the…