Studied the use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory for Adolescents (MMPI-A) (J. Butcher and others, 1992) with 13-year olds by examining the profiles produced. Investigated the effect of scoring with standard MMPI-A norms. Findings support the use of standard MMPI-A norms with 13-year-old inpatients. (SLD)

Only assessment can tell middle school physical education teachers whether their students are learning. The paper offers a list of assessment tools, including structured observations, written tests, student logs and journals, role playing and simulations, reports, and projects. The paper also recommends using rubrics to assess the quality of…

Discusses panels for standard setting and presents 10 guidelines for the selection of panel members for such studies. Panel members should themselves hold the license for which they are producing a cutting score, and they must be familiar with the requirements of the profession and the characteristics of the candidates. (SLD)

Articles in this section discuss issues related to measurement and teaching: (1) "Measure Accuracy: Functioning- Level vs. Grade-Level Testing (George S. Ingebo); (2) "Biological Evaluation: A Tough Nut To Crack for Biology Teachers in Singapore?" (Lee Yew-Jin and Yeoh Oon-Chye); and (3) "A Secondary Scoring Mechanism To Study…

Respondents' Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) classifications may differ considerably on the basis of the form and scoring method used. The BSRI was reexamined with respect to past and present relevance. (Contains 62 references and 3 tables.) (Author)

Proposes a new descriptive item statistic, the mean cumulative logit, for scoring ratings of health care at the population level. Demonstrates the advantages of the method using data from the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study and shows that the perceived quality of health care is greater for fee-for-service plans than managed care plans in…

Providing an essay by a student who committed suicide as an example, discusses the importance of appreciating what writing rubrics and other assessment devices do not measure or observe. Proposes that school counselors can help educators' discern possible warning signs in students' written and oral communications. (Contains 15 references.) (GCP)

Presents scores teachers assigned to samples of actual students' problem-solving work and rationales teachers provided for these scores which may reflect teachers' values relative to aspects of mathematical problem solving. Concludes that when teachers can express rationales for scoring students' work, they are able to justify their evaluation of…

Groups of high school students undertook problem-solving design activities in technology education focused either on process or content approaches. Rating of projects using rubrics identified key indicators of problem solving. The Student Individualized Performance instrument was found to be an effective assessment tool. (SK)

Discusses a general model framework within which manifest variables with different distributions in the exponential family can be analyzed with a latent trait model. Presents a unified maximum likelihood method for estimating the parameters of the generalized latent trait model and discusses the scoring of individuals on the latent dimensions.…

Used an analytic rubric to score 120 writing samples from Georgia's 11th grade writing assessment. Raters augmented scores by adding a "+" or "-" to the score. Results indicate that this method of augmentation tends to improve most indices of interrater reliability, although the percentage of exact and adjacent agreement…

Reviews the most recent version of the BILOG computer program, which estimates item and trait level parameters for the one-, two-, and three-parameter logistic unidimensional Item Response Models for dichotomously scored data. Finds this version useful. (SLD)

Reexamined the standard scoring structure of the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) Social Introversion Scale with Rasch measurement using data from 2,600 nonpsychiatric subjects from the restandardization sample. Discusses how to use Rasch measurement to understand and improve personality measurement. (SLD)

Attempted to improve the measurement quality of a complex performance assessment through principled assessment design using the example of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Early Childhood/Generalist examination. All indexes examined improved after revisions were made. Results show the importance of attention to assessment…

The article deals with the use of rubrics as an assessment tool in the classroom. It is said that teaching elementary music holds many joys but there are serious challenges for new and seasoned teachers including the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act. With limited time to cover music curricula, assessment is often put aside because teachers feel the…