Purpose: Two approaches commonly used for estimating prevalence of language disorders in families were compared. The 1st involved examining a subset of language items from an investigator-based interview used to record parental information on the language and literacy difficulties in relatives. The 2nd was the direct assessment of ability in…

A meta-analytic study on effectiveness of behavioral and psychotherapeutic treatments for challenging behaviors in individuals with mild mental retardation is reported. Eighty articles were examined. For each comparison, several study variables and two effect sizes (percentage of nonoverlapping data--PND and percentage of zero data--PZD) were…

Two experiments examined reliability and classification accuracy of a narration-based dynamic assessment task. Purpose: The first experiment evaluated whether parallel results were obtained from stories created in response to 2 different wordless picture books. If so, the tasks and measures would be appropriate for assessing pretest and posttest…

Purpose: Measures are lacking that address the challenges that people think they face in their roles as elderly care receivers. However, the development of a sense of efficacy in this role by mentally competent care receivers is critical to successful partnerships between caregivers and care receivers. The purpose of this article is to report the…

Background: Bullying is a problem in schools in many countries. There would be a benefit in the availability of a psychometrically sound instrument for its measurement, for use by teachers and researchers. The Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire has been used in a number of studies but comprehensive evidence on its validity is not available. Aims:…

Current educational policy highlights the important role that assessment can play in improving education. State standards and the assessments that are aligned with them establish targets for learning and promote school accountability for helping all students succeed; at the same time, feedback from assessment results is expected to provide …

The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) to explore the use of a new rating scale that measures teachers' attitudes toward their students and (b) to investigate the attitudes of inclusive teachers toward their students with disabilities using the rating scale. Fifty inclusive elementary teachers in 12 northeast Ohio schools rated all of…

Objective: The authors developed and validated measures of college drinking expectations, psychosocial influences, and values. Participants: Freshmen at college entry (N = 320) and the end of freshman year (N = 420) participated. Methods: The College Drinking Influences Survey, administered in paper and Web-based versions, consists of 3 distinct…

The Montgomery County (Maryland) public school system has started using assessments other than multiple-choice tests because it is felt that this will provide school staff with better information about the success of the instructional program. One of the ways assessments can provide better information is by having teachers score student papers.…

The Study Activity Questionnaire (SAQ) was administered to 83 college students who were enrolled in either an introductory research methods course or an introductory statistics course in the college of education at one university. At the beginning of the term the students completed the SAQ with reference to how they typically studied (pretest),…

Studies of the Angoff method of standard setting suggest that judges agree in their estimates of the relative difficulties of test questions for minimally competent examinees and that each judge's estimates correlate well with the observed item difficulties for examinees whose total test scores are near the judge's personal standard (G. E.…

This paper reports on the first stage of the construction and refinement process underway in pursuit of developing a brief composite instrument to measure teachers' attitudes toward computers. Items (n=284) from 14 questionnaires assessing teacher attitudes toward computers were completed by 118 educators in Texas in 1995. Internal consistency…

As part of an effort to statistically validate the placement tests used in California's San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) a study was undertaken to review the criteria- and content-related validity of the Assessment and Placement Services (APS) reading and writing tests. Evidence of criteria and content validity was gathered from…

This article discusses the development of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) curricula that are consistent across course levels. The article argues that to maintain consistency, teachers must cooperate to form an ongoing, systematic development of subskill-based course guidelines in the skill areas of speaking, listening, reading, writing, and…

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) is the third major study in the National Center for Education Statistics program of longitudinal studies about the achievement and characteristics of elementary and secondary school students. NELS:88 began with a base year survey of eighth grade students in 1988, followed up at 2-year…