This report is part of South Carolina's effort to move toward "100 percent performance funding" for the state's public colleges and universities and results from a task force's investigation of ways to assess critical thinking. The following eight major findings are reported: (1) policy makers must determine priorities; (2) critical…

The Teacher List Validation Study was conducted to evaluate the quality of the Teacher Listing Record (TLR), a form used during the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to obtain a list of teachers in each school. The SASS is a set of four inter-related surveys of public and private elementary and secondary schools, districts, teachers, and…

The objective of this study was to investigate the emergence of a "mindy" (a unit of mind). The mindy is characterized as an open, organized, discrete, and kinematic mental shape. The study was the sequel to research on the emergence of mental shape (R. Laassonen, 1993). The subjects were 84 students, aged 13 to 16 years and…

A study was conducted to inquire into serial and parallel relations of information processing. A hypothesis was derived from earlier studies, and it was assumed that serial processing exceeds parallel processing in time. A figure-type test was constructed with two items. The reliability of the measure was examined with the coefficient of…

This report provides a basis for understanding the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results on the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS) through exploratory factor procedures. Recently, researchers have expanded the available psychometric information on the GRCS through the application of CFA procedures to the hypothesized four-factor model. The…

Data from the College Board Validity Study Service show that the average multiple correlation of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) with college grades peaked in 1974 and then tended to decline. Data from other sources also estimate a small average decline from 1974 to 1985. This study documented changes in the SAT and related these changes to…

Cross-national classroom environment research investigating differences in mathematics classroom environment according to country (Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom), grade level (grades 8, 10, and 12), and student gender was conducted using a sample of 3,602 students from 29 schools. Students responded to a questionnaire developed from…

This study was designed to address questions of differential validity and questions of differential prediction in the law school admission process. The former were evaluated by comparing the magnitude of validity coefficients resulting from both simple and multiple correlations between first-year performance in law school and the traditional…

Web-based statistical instruction, like all statistical instruction, ought to focus on teaching the essence of the research endeavor: the exercise of reflective judgment. Using the framework of the recent report of the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Statistical Inference (Wilkinson and the APA Task Force on Statistical…

This study looks at how testing affects critical decisions for U.S. students, focusing on the impact of testing on individual students. It examines common misuses of tests, their political and social contexts, what happens when test issues are taken to court, special student populations, social promotion, and other issues of current interest. The…

This package contains the Learning Disabilities Diagnostic Inventory (LDDI) and the LDDI examiner's manual. The LDDI is intended to help identify intrinsic processing disorders in children and adolescents. Items represent specific observable behaviors associated with learning disability (LD) in listening, speaking, reading, writing, mathematics,…

This paper reviews and evaluates methods for conducting job analysis. The paper begins with a discussion of the purpose of licensure and certification and the dimensions of job analysis. The following four dimensions along which job analysis methods vary are discussed: types of job descriptors; sources of information; data collection methods; and…

This report was undertaken to help the Tennessee State government comply with federal requirements that all states collect valid, reliable, and uniform data for programs receiving federal funds as English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) adult education programs. Data must be collected to report learner gains in reading, writing, speaking, and…

Noting that the inclusion of young children with disabilities in early childhood programs has important short-term behavioral and social benefits for such children and their families and that arguments for an "ethic of inclusion" have emerged within the field, this paper maintains that much remains to be learned about the nature of early childhood…

A study used item response theory to examine the vocational interests of 2,709 high school students (1,436 males; 1,273 females) in Australia in relation to Holland's vocational interest typology (1973, 1985, 1997), which identifies six fundamental vocational types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) that…