The gain, or difference, score is defined as the difference between the posttest score and the pretest score for an individual. Gain scores appear to be a natural measure of growth for education and the social sciences, but they contain two sources of measurement error, error in either the pretest or posttest scores, and cannot be considered…

Most seasoned test developers recognize the importance of thoughtful decision making when constructing a test. Unfortunately, many classroom achievement tests are created by novice test developed who have not received sufficient instruction in item writing (G. Gulliksen, 1986; R. J. Stiggins, 1991). The result is often a test that is poorly…

The Educational Testing Service is developing a new generation of teacher assessments--the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. The assessment series consists of three components. An academic skills component will assess the candidate's basic academic and enabling skills. Subject assessments will test the candidate's…

A study examined the stability of career interests of adolescents using the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII). Participants were 271 freshmen from a rural Midwestern state who took the SCII two times, 3 years apart. Based on this sample, comparisons were made on occupational themes and basic interests of the SCII. Results revealed that…

The Self-Regulated Learning Inventory was developed to help researchers and teachers understand the concept of self-regulated learning and to provide a tool for identifying behaviors students need for academic success. Version One of the instrument contained 71 items representing the factors of metacognition, learning strategies, motivation,…

The design, administration, scoring, and results of the 1993 New York State Correctional Captain Examination are described. The examination was administered to 405 candidates. As in previous Sergeant and Lieutenant examinations, candidates also completed latent image written simulation problems and open/closed book multiple choice test components.…

A study explored the reliability of methods for analyzing the thematic organization of texts. Five linguists, two of whom were native speakers of Swedish and three of whom were native speakers of Finnish, analyzed the thematic organization of a Swedish popular scientific article, using an analysis that focused on coherence reflected in the…

When faced with having to assign a grade to a student's oral proficiency in a small group discussion, how can teachers consistently evaluate each student? Because a student's adeptness at a foreign language can vary from one ability to another, it is unfair to evaluate his or her performance solely by grammatical and lexical accuracy or by any…

In 1991, a study was conducted of Miami-Dade Community College students' classroom experiences. The process involved randomly selecting one section for each full-time faculty member and administering the surveys prior to the final course withdrawal date. Surveys were returned from 640 sections (84% of those initially selected), and responses were…

The Computerized Inventory of Developmental Writing Traits (CIDWT) is meant to provide a valid reliable measure of program improvement, particularly for teachers implementing a process writing approach in their classrooms. While standardized tests, portfolio, and holistic scoring all have something to offer, the CIDWT is an inexpensive direct…

The Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI) developed by J. F. Efstation, M. J. Patton, and C. M. Kardash (1990) was further evaluated for its psychometric properties and relationships with the Personal Reactions Scale--Revised (PRS-R) developed by E. L. Holloway and B. E. Wampold (1984), the only other measure of the relationship in…

One difficulty in studying the long-term impact of divorce on children has been the lack of a reliable and valid measure of parental conflict for divorced parents. Items for a post-divorce conflict scale were written and tested using 32 male and 63 female college students from divorced families for Study 1 and 60 male and 75 female students from…

This paper offers reasons for using traditional quantitative research methods and illustrates some of the considerations demanding rigor in a study on gender discrimination in school-administrator salaries. Traditional quantitative methods provide a meaningful language based on numbers and objectivity, and they are less time-consuming and complex…

This study analyzed English language tests administered in Brazil as part of a university entrance examination, focusing on the authenticity of its tests of second language reading comprehension, the concept of reading as an interactive process between reader and text, a proficiency-based view of language instruction, and the psychometric…

A previous research report described a prototype measure of the skill of negotiation in interpersonal competency and the results of an initial validation study of that measure. This report describes the results of two further validation studies of the computer simulation negotiation skill measure. In study 1, 37 second- and third-year law students…