A study investigated the reliability, validity, and sensitivity of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) reading (which relates reading fluency to reading comprehension) with bilingual Hispanic students. For 10 weeks, 50 second-grade bilingual students and 26 students who spoke English only were administered CBM reading measures twice weekly.…

Each spring, the New York City Public Schools conduct evaluations of first-graders to determine which students are in need of remedial reading and mathematics programs. A new measure was designed to be more reliable than the multiple-choice, standardized tests used previously. A checklist of 20 items relating to language arts, reading, and…

A Kantian model of moral development already tested on adolescents was further tested on normal and delinquent Korean adults. The model, based on the philosophy of Kant, starts its causality from the self, moves from the self to parental images, advances from parental images to duty and legality, and moves from duty and legality to a moral…

Problems of validity and reliability of concept mapping are addressed by using item-response theory (IRT) models for scoring. In this study, the overall structure of students' concept maps are defined by the number of links, the number of hierarchies, the number of cross-links, and the number of examples. The study was conducted with 92 students…

The speaking ability of 40 Finnish college students of English as a Second Language was assessed in tests of interactional and transactional language function. In the interactional test, the learner introduced a topic of his choice and attempted to converse with two native speakers of English. In the transactional test, the learner watched a video…

This paper presents the results of ongoing analyses of the reliability of the System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR) as a comprehensive measure of classroom teaching and learning for making teacher certification decisions. Focus was on the effects of high stakes assessment conditions for certification on the generalizability…

Holistic scoring is widely used to assess writing proficiency in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition. Written recall protocols have recently been used to investigate the relationship between how much holistic scorers comprehend of a given text and how high they rate the quality of that text. This study investigated whether readers…

This paper examines issues in designing post-school follow-up studies in special education. The examination focuses on survey research techniques, which are widely used in the investigation of post-school adjustment of former students with handicaps. In special education, survey research studies are used commonly to address many important…

Results of testing the validity and reliability of the Australian second language proficiency ratings (ASLPR) are presented. In addition to providing a framework for planning English as a second language programs for immigrants to Australia, the ASLPR was developed to specify second language proficiency in terms of practical language skills. The…

This paper discusses issues which make it difficult to measure the teaching performance of college faculty. The issues discussed are those which could lead to ethical and legal problems should they be ignored--those issues which are sensitive because personnel decisions are made on the basis of evaluations. Simplistic methods, such as student…

To test the applicability of multidimensional ratings of writing effectiveness that are amenable to normal classroom usage, all grade 7 students (N=139) from one suburban school (Sydney, Australia) wrote a brief essay. Master and student teachers evaluated all the essays according to overall effectiveness of written expression and according to…

Many studies of educational outcomes collect data on the socioeconomic characteristics of parents from students, and not from the parents themselves. Nevertheless, students are often fallible informants of parental status factors. A series of distinct hierarchical measurement models were used to examine the structure of errors in high school…

This document provides a report on the evaluation of STEPS (Surviving Today's Experiences and Problems Successfully), the Waters Foundation Curriculum for teaching thinking skills and expository writing. Data were collected during the 1983-84 academic year, using a junior high school as a field site. Four experimental classes were taught STEPS two…

The content of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act is described, its current interpretations are examined, and the implications for developing a responsible language and citizenship curriculum to conform to the legislation are discussed. Specific attention is focused on the law's requirement that illegal aliens applying for amnesty and…

The extent to which national performance on an achievement test battery changed over a 4-year period was studied, and the comparative performance of students in school districts taking the test series for the first time was compared with that of students in districts that had used the battery at least once in one or more grades. The seventh…