Describes the development of an instrument to measure the areas of emphasis established by a supervisor with a trainee. Includes the procedures used to establish the content, the basis for necessary revisions, and the statistical reliabilities that were obtained for each subscale and the total instrument. Suggestions for future research using the…

Forty-six achievement tests were compared for content validity, criterion-related validity, reliability, and norms. Results show that more popular tests provide the user with technical data in the critical areas examined, although the information provided may be incomplete. (Author/MT)

Using development of a State Event Observation System as an example, the decision rules and procedures for the constructing of standardized multiple behavior observational systems that provide accurate, reliable data for school-based assessment, intervention, and research are described. Reliability and validity data from the SECOS are provided.…

Three essay questions were administered to junior education major college students. Factor analysis of the ratings showed that content played a large role in the students' responses, yielding dominant first order factors. Generalizability theory, used to examine the reliability of students' ratings, showed the need for more raters and questions.…

The factor structure of the Adult Norwicki-Strickland I-E Scale, sampling 174 college students, indicated differential factor dimensionality for males and females. The findings also support the contention that I-E is multidimensional in nature; however, these dimensions reflecting factorial validity have not been found to be consistently reliable…

Questions the construct validity, representatives of the norms, and reliability of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. While the K-ABC is attractively produced and easy to administer, reliance on a particular theory restricts the range of cognitive abilities sampled. (JAC)

Finds a number of problems with the test and concludes that there is little real advantage to using it in preference to other published informal reading inventories now available. (FL)

Estimates confluence model of intellectual development for a within-family sample of 321 children from 101 transracial adoptive families. Mental ages of children and their parents and birth or adoption intervals were used in a nonlinear least-squares estimation procedure to obtain children's predicted mental ages. Results suggest efficiency of the…

Explains that from a prediction standpoint the confluence model is not very efficient. Very modest increments in accuracy are associated with family configuration variables once chronological age is covaried. Suggests that the major postulates of the theory be tested directly, within individuals and with longitudinal data. (Author/AS)

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of the Spanish translation of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory with a group of Puerto Rican students on the island and another on the mainlands. It was found to be reliable for both groups. (Author/BW)

A study investigated whether examiners' personal familiarity and professional experience with examinees affects handicapped children's test performance. Professionally experienced and inexperienced examiners were used in test conditions that varied by degree of personal familiarity of examiners and children. Results are discussed. (Author/DF)

Discussion of checklists and their variations--job aids, algorithms, heuristics, and decision tables--covers what they are, how they are generated, and some implications of checklisting for instruction, evaluation, and learning. Examples of various kinds of checklists and 11 references are provided. (MBR)

Explored the relationship between the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) administered to a sample of 29 mentally retarded children. Findings indicated that the PPVT-R predicted achievement as measured by the PIAT only moderately; and that PPVT-R scores correlated with achievement…

Discusses the relationship between subjective evaluation and objective measures of ESL writing proficiency. Objective measures used in this study accounted for 84 percent of the variance of subjective grades assigned to a sample of compositions. Author suggests that training readers can be important to the reliability and the validity of the…

Examines two sets of variables that influence age-related patterns of text recall--the effects of verbal ability level and text structure variables on text recall of younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Results indicate that age differences in the discovery and utilization of the organizational structure of texts were found to be mediated by…