Describes the development of an instrument to assess teachers' context beliefs about using technology in the classroom based on a study of teachers in a professional development program on technology integration. Highlights include capability beliefs; context beliefs; personal agency belief patterns; content validity; and construct and predictive…

The early childhood educational field has garnered attention with initiatives to foster skill acquisition in young children prior to kindergarten entry. These initiatives, in conjunction with the rigorous demands of curricular reform and a burgeoning accountability movement, invoke questions regarding the adequacy of the instruments used to assess…

Objective: The research was conducted to determine the relationship between violent trauma, child abuse history, and dissociative symptoms in a Russian population. Method: Three hundred and one undergraduate students from Moscow State Linguistics University participated in the study and completed the Dissociation Continuum Scale, the Violence…

The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric characteristics of a phonological awareness assessment for prekindergarten children using Messick's (1989) framework for unitary construct validity. Upon entry into prekindergarten, children were given rhyme discrimination, syllable segmentation, initial phoneme isolation, and phoneme…

The psychometric properties of the Self-Report Depression Questionnaire (SRDQ) were evaluated, extending a previous assessment of this instrument. Data from two independent studies (Esbensen, 2004; Seltzer & Krauss, 1989) were pooled to generate a sample of 192 individuals with primarily mild or moderate mental retardation. Reliability estimates…

This report presents the validity of the SAT for predicting two third-year college outcomes: (1) third-year cumulative GPA (3rd Yr Cum GPA), and (2) third-year grade point average (3rd Yr GPA). Similar to the results for first- and second-year outcomes (1st Yr GPA, 2nd Yr GPA, 2nd Yr Cum GPA), the SAT is strongly correlated with third year…

The purpose of this study was to examine the alternate-form reliability, criterion validity, and sensitivity of progress-monitoring measures in reading for secondary-level English Learners (ELs). Twenty-five ELs in an urban high school were administered two types of Curriculum-Based Measures (CBM) once every 3 weeks for 13 weeks. Measures included…

The authors report on a large-scale study examining the effects of self-reported psychosocial factors on 1st-year college outcomes. Using a sample of 14,464 students from 48 institutions, the authors constructed hierarchical regression models to measure the predictive validity of the Student Readiness Inventory, a measure of psychosocial factors.…

The main goal of this report is to present evidence on the predictive validity of an English language arts (ELA) performance assessment (PA) administered in Grades 2-9 in a large urban school district. To account for the hierarchical structure of the data (students are nested within schools), we employed hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to…

Objective: Interview data collected from 275 clients with severe mental illnesses are used to test the construct and criterion validity of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale (PSS). Method: First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to test whether the scale reflects the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom…

The purpose of this followup study was to determine the long-term predictive validity of theoretically coherent reading measures administered during fall and winter of kindergarten. Seventy-nine children were screened using measures representing letter identification, phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming.…

A study was undertaken at Morton College, in Illinois, to examine the relationship of entering grade point average (GPA) and grades in prerequisite support courses in algebra, biology, and chemistry to graduation in the college's nursing program. A sample was developed of 255 students admitted to the nursing program in 1990, 1991, and 1992 and…

A study was conducted to determine how best to use APS Reading Test scores for making English placement recommendations for students at College of the Canyons (COC) in Santa Clarita, California. The primary method used to establish cut scores involves comparing success rates for contrasting groups over a range of scores. The contrasting groups are…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences between learning disabled and nonlearning disabled students in skill areas and total scores on the Brigance K & 1 Screen for Kindergarten and First Grade. The study investigated whether students with learning disabilities would show significant weaknesses in language-based…

Numerous studies on death anxiety report conflicting findings. Concluding that a lack of specificity may explain the mixed results, this study sought to address the lack of focus and to extend and validate the results of an earlier study. A sample of 152 undergraduate students (111 female) from middle to upper-middle class participated. Subjects…