This paper is a preliminary report on the development of alternate forms of an attitude scale to assess parents' and professionals' views toward the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) process, a process evolving as a result of Federal regulations regarding early-intervention services. Development of the set of attitude scales is unique in…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…

This study was undertaken to shed light on problems concerning the construction and use of a common test battery for various South African population groups. Specifically, the psychometric suitability for use with Indian and Black pupils, of the Junior Aptitude Tests (JAT), which were standardized for White pupils in Standard 7 was studied. The…

Latent trait measurement theory was used to investigate the measurement characteristics of both parts of a multiple-choice measure of field-independence, the Finding Embedded Figures Test (FEFT). Analysis was based on data provided by 1,528 students enrolled in one of two middle schools located in the southern United States. Of the subjects, 731…

The papers collected in this volume are intended both to present a summary 'history' and description of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) and to illustrate a variety of approaches to the analysis of the data that emerged from SIMS. The papers are intended…

Mental health clinical services research has emphasized the urgency of developing new psychometric instruments for non-biased psychological assessment of minority and non-minority children of diverse cultural groups in the United States. Background multicultural standardization and validation information is presented for Tell-Me-A-Story (TEMAS)--a…

This report contains the Proceedings of the 1982 Item Response Theory and Computerized Adaptive Testing Conference. The papers and their discussions are organized into eight sessions: (1) "Developments in Latent Trait Theory," with papers by Fumiko Samejima and Michael V. Levine; (2) "Parameter Estimation," with papers by…

In order to take advantage of advances in the field of mental measurement, the Armed Forces and the Department of Defense have supported the development of a computerized adaptive version of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) for use in military personnel selection and classification. This report describes the development and…

A pilot study on the development and administration of a test using a spatial reasoning problem, the 15-puzzle, is described. The test utilizes on-line capabilities of a real-time computer to record an examinee's progress on each problem through a sequence of problem-solving "moves", and to collect additional on-line data that might be…

Describes the development of a research tool, the Occupational Identity Scale, to study one dimension of ego-identity development (occupational dimension), with 417 college and high school students validating items. Identified four factors which accounted for 49 percent of the total variance. Reliability coefficients ranged between 0.70 and 0.87,…

The present study was initiated to gather information about states' out-of-level testing practices. Specifically, we wanted to see whether states attempted to align out-of-level tests with grade of enrollment content standards, what processes are used to complete this task, and what psychometric information states offer as evidence of that…

Noting that the last 40 years have witnessed an enormous increase in the number of psychological tests designed for the assessment of competencies in very young children, this review summarizes the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of psychological tests and other assessment instruments used to evaluate the cognitive functioning of…

Planning is essential to creating safe schools and it is required by the Federal No Child Left Behind legislation (U.S. Department of Education, 2004) and implemented via district local education action plans. The implementation of these plans involves continuous monitoring and reevaluation of information pertinent to each campus. As such, this…

Background: The behaviour of children raised in institutional care in their early years is typified by heightened levels of inattention and overactivity irrespective of the quality of the care. There is some evidence that this behaviour may be specifically associated with forms of attachment disorder behaviours, but to date studies have been…

The goals of the present research were to develop a modified version of an existing self-assessment questionnaire designed to measure parents' emotional style and to examine how the aspects of child regulation may moderate the relation between the emotional styles and social outcomes in childhood. Participants in Study 1 were 140 mothers and…