There is presently much disagreement about how students should be evaluated effectively to determine their progress. Some common methods are reviewed, including standardized tests and performance-based evaluation such as portfolios. Continuous experimentation is necessary in the effort to develop better measurement approaches. (SLD)

Discusses the process of developing a communicative reading/writing test based on authentic materials for university students in economics, political science, or law who are nonnative English speakers. (27 references) (CFM)

A lawsuit involving the National Board for Respiratory Therapy illustrates that certification examinations are vulnerable to complaints of discrimination and employers' misuse of test results. The board's five-step process--position-viability study, personnel survey, job analysis, item writing/test development, and criterion-related validity…

Normative and psychometric properties of a recently developed teacher checklist, the Academic Performance Rating Scale (APRS), were studied using 493 urban elementary school children (251 males and 242 females). The APRS was a reliable and valid source of information about the quality of a student's academic performance and behavior. (SLD)

The reliability and validity of multiple-choice tests were computed as a function of the number of options per item and student ability for 435 parochial high school juniors, who were administered the Washington Pre-College Test Battery. Results suggest the efficacy of the three-option item. (SLD)

Development and validation of the Ethical Climate Index, designed to measure perceived ethical climate of an institution's graduate and professional school programs, is described. The instrument was found to be valid and reliable, and variability was found in student perceptions of ethical climate across major academic areas. Research needs are…

The development and validation of a weighted index capable of discriminating among competing learner needs to allow equitable resource allocation are described. Using the Delphi technique, this national study was concerned with the needs of Australia's school-age population with non-English-speaking backgrounds. (TJH)

Tested high school seniors and college freshmen (N=183) to examine whether Cohesion and Adaptability Scales on Family Adaptability Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES III) relate linearly or curvilinearly with positive family functioning and whether independence, open disagreements, or family satisfaction is responsible for curvilinear finding…

To develop a measure of the adjustment strains for international students, more than 250 high school-aged students from 5 South American countries were assessed twice during a year-long stay in the United States using the Inventory of Student Adjustment. Results support the utility and validity of the scale. (SLD)

Describes the construction and field-testing results of intermediate-level tests for Canada' National Core French Assessment. Teachers found the instruments flexible to use and helpful for evaluating desired learning outcomes. Students found them beneficial for focusing and organizing learning activities. Both teachers and students found them…

The Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children (NPQC) is a brief self-report scale for measuring narcissism in children. In Study 1, a factor analysis on 370 children's NPQC scores revealed four factors that were labeled superiority, exploitativeness, self-absorption, and leadership. Study 2 established convergent and discriminant…

This article reports the development and application of two instruments for assessing science teachers' pedagogical knowledge in the context of teaching higher-order thinking: a Likert-type research instrument, and an instrument that analyzes classroom observations. The rationale for developing these instruments and their main categories is…

The development of valid and reliable instruments for attitudes' measurement has been proven crucial for the quality of research. This study is dealing with the development and validation of an attitude toward chemistry instrument. By using this instrument, 11th grade Greek students' attitudes regarding the difficulty, the interest, the usefulness…

Community-based research has evolved in the field of HIV/AIDS health promotion as a distinct expression of participatory action research in adult education. The authors of this chapter reflect on more than a decade of local knowledge construction to organize and improve the practice of HIV/AIDS health promotion in a variety of contexts.

Introduction: A marketing/business model using non-traditional Quality of Life measures was developed to assess perinatal health status on a micro-geographic level. This perinatal health status needs assessment study for Georgia South Central Region was conducted for the years 1994-1999. The model may be applied to any geographic unit in the…