Notes professional journalists know they cannot be efficient news reporters without being able to do basic math. Describes five kinds of calculations journalists use, kinds of stories calculations appear in, and how to work with them. Discusses questions to ask about the reliability of data. Offers exercises dealing with mean and median, percent…

Provides an overview of the Portfolio Placement Project (PPP) at the University of Arizona; explores the concept of validity as it relates to the PPP; explores the concept of reliability within the PPP; and argues that the PPP has had enormous positive impact on the curriculum of the University of Arizona and the schools whose students submit…

Explores response styles and sets capable of altering a person's responses in the thinking portion of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS). Constructs and incorporates into the PICTS validity scales to measure confusion and defensiveness. Results reveal that internal consistency, reliability, and validity of these two…

Argues that teachers who manage their classrooms around learning style instruction are engaging in a practice of debatable value. Notes a lack of supportive research and the questionable reliability and validity of learning style inventories. Suggests that confusion over learning style instruction is magnified by the limitations inherent in the…

In this response to critiques (Mudford, Hogg and Roberts 1997, 1999) of the use of behavior states in research involving individuals with mental retardation, it is argued that the work on behavioral state analysis by Robert D. Guess has contributed to the field at the practical, empirical, and theoretical levels. (Contains references.) (CR)

The Intergenerational Exchanges Attitude Scale was tested by a sample of 36 adult day-care and 300 child-care administrators (227 responses). Both groups had positive attitudes toward the interaction of children and older adults. Reliability and validity of the instrument appeared viable. (SK)

Generalizability theory is used to show that the assumption that reliability for groups is greater than that for persons (and that error variance for groups is less than that for persons) is not necessarily true. Examples are provided from course evaluation and performance test literature. (SLD)

The ability of persons faking posttraumatic stress disorder or head injury to respond consistently across serial testings on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 was studied with 118 undergraduates. Results suggest that test takers can fake and describe symptoms consistently, and that type of disorder may affect temporal response…

Second-language (L2) learners differ from native speakers in how extensively (1) native-like success on one principle of universal grammar (UG) predicts success on other principles (lateral consistency) and (2) this level of success remains stable (longitudinal consistency). Research on Japanese as a second-language acquisition indicates that…

Psychometric data are presented for 223 children and adults with autism, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS), or nonspectrum diagnoses who took the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic. Within each module, diagnostic groups were equivalent on expressive language levels. Results indicate substantial…

Summarizes data related to the stability and variation in the norms for the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test (J. Raven, 1936), a measure of basic cognitive functioning, for different cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups worldwide and within countries. Also considers variation over time and suggests an explanation for the variation in norms…

Reviews the articles in this issue of "School Psychology Quarterly" and briefly compares their methods for identifying profile patterns. Argues that subtest profile patterns on the existing generation of intelligence tests have modest reliability and weak relationships with achievement and diagnostic categorizations. (Contains 13…

Studied the importance of occasion as a source of error variance in estimates of the dependability (generalizability) of science assessment scores and the Interchangeability of science test formats. Junior high school students (n=662) took hands-on and paper-and-pencil tests twice. Results show that recognizing occasion as a facet of error alters…

Investigates how experienced and inexperienced raters score essays written by English as a Second Language (ESL) students on two different prompts. Shows that the inexperienced raters were more severe than the experienced raters on one prompt but not on the other prompt, and that differences between the two groups of raters were eliminated…

By asking several questions, educators can ensure that instructional decisions are based on data from sound assessment instruments. Teachers must consider an instrument's purpose, its effects on improving instruction, its strengths and weaknesses, variables affecting student performance and teacher perception of performance, and what to do…