Development of the College Descriptive Index (CDI; Form C) is reported. The CDI is an adjective check list that measures eight dimensions of students' satisfaction with college. The instrument was completed by 601 students at four colleges providing information on satisfaction in each of the eight areas. Scoring procedures and a copy of the…

Recent national surveys have found marked increases in the use of illicit drugs and alcohol among adolescents. To investigate differential prediction of alcohol versus hard drug use amoung youths, 6% of the youths, aged 10-19, from a Pennsylvania county school system (N=1,689) were assessed on the HEW Community Youth Program Impact Scales. The 12…

Scales constructed under procedures and criteria outlined by the various traditional and latent trait methods were examined as to whether they varied in characteristics related to scale quality. Scales were constructed from a common pool of items analyzed in full form according to Likert and a one-parameter Rasch model for non-dichotomous data.…

The concept of "curriculum alignment" is based on the principle that, if instructional accomplishments are to be reliably obtained, three things must line up: instructional objectives, testing systems, and classroom instruction. The task of aligning a curriculum is described as requiring four attitudinal approaches: (1) Teachers and…

The Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS) was developed in order to examine the extent to which Title I (now Chapter 1) is remediating the disadvantages in basic skills of educationally deprived children. TIERS Model A contrasts the achievement of Chapter 1 students to publishers' norms for hypothetically comparable groups of students.…

The paper examined the impact of maternal personality and maternal social support variables on the security of mother-infant attachment. The influence of maternal intelligence, affect balance, and life stress were also examined. Measures used included Loevinger's Ego Development Scale, Crnic's Satisfaction with Social Support, the Peabody Picture…

A study supplementing earlier research by Lalande and Schweckendiek investigated comparisons and correlations obtained from testing a group of 17 university students of German using both the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the most recent revision of the examination for the…

This manual describes the theory behind the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) and explains what the subscale and scale scores mean. The SPQ is a 42-item self-report questionnaire used in Australia to assess the extent to which a tertiary student at a college or university endorses different approaches to learning and the motives and strategies…

A system of evaluation which generates copious information with minimal demands on teachers and administrators can improve the quality of teacher assessment while lowering the tensions associated with the process. Multiple-Strategies Model for Effective Teaching is made up of 10 component parts. Each component represents an element in a framework…

The process of writing test items is analyzed, and a blueprint is presented for an authoring system for test item writing to reduce invalidity and to structure the process of item writing. The developmental methodology is introduced, and the first steps in the process are reported. A historical review traces the advances made in the field and the…

A pilot study was conducted to determine the effects of certification status on the performance of mathematics teachers in Mississippi. A number of new teachers of mathematics in Mississippi agreed to participate in the study. The subjects included 33 regularly certified teachers who had received certification from colleges of education and 14…

The factorial validity of four of the nine Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (FSMASs) was examined for use in measuring fifth graders' interaction with a subject. The following four scales were assessed: (1) the Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale; (2) the Attitude Toward Success in Mathematics Scale (ATSMS); (3) the Mathematics…

Examinees (N=1,233) at the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) were administered one of three test forms in which only item order differed. The study was undertaken to determine the validity of the assumption underlying item response theory (IRT) that there are fixed item parameters that can predict performance. The Rasch IRT model was…

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition is a conceptually new version of this traditional intelligence scale. The new scale has a solid basis in theory, but there is little evidence that the Binet matches its intended theory. This study was designed to determine whether the Binet corresponds to the theory that guided its…

One set of counselor behaviors that has been highly investigated over recent years has been the social influence behaviors. Despite the considerable research interest in social influence theory as it relates to counseling, there has been little attention to the demonstration of the presence or absence of such behavioral skills as expertness,…