A new approach for examining the quality of judgments from standard-setting judges using a Binomial Trials Model (BTM) is presented and illustrated with 26 judges from the Georgia High School Graduation Test. Results suggest that the BTM provides information not available from other methods. (SLD)

Extrapolated data from a 1990 study of 54-month-old children to examine attachment representations. Subjects' story completions were scored for idea units and scriptedness, revealing advanced validity compared to those of younger subjects. Concluded that analysis of cognitive variables may be used to understand attachment representations and their…

Addresses, in an empirical study, the role personality types of writers and of raters play in the holistic rating of writing, and whether there is a relationship between writers' personalities and raters' personalities. Indicates writers' personality types affect the ratings their essays receive and raters' personality types affect the ratings…

The first step to making performance criteria work as instructional tools in the classroom is to develop a clear idea of criteria for quality. The second is to teach these criteria to students, giving them the necessary vocabulary to think and speak like writers, communicators, and problem solvers. (MLH)

Discusses the use of a scoring rubric for use in clinical supervision. Defines the rubric, provides a brief example, and includes guidelines for development. This rubric will help supervisors to engage in a more positively active and objective form of supervision that will allow both the counselor-in-training and the supervisor to experience…

Describes the development and validation of the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE), a 20-item, Likert-scaled instrument that assesses teachers' overall acceptance of evolutionary theory. (Author/CCM)

Provides examples of geometry writing projects and discusses goals and difficulties of using these projects. Explores the process of grading and allowing student revisions of these projects by using a time-saving grading method. (Author/ASK)

Responds to a negative evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and asserts that a review of the evidence for the NAEP performance standards indicates that there is support for the current approach to NAEP standard setting. Considers the scholarship of the NAS evaluation…

Takes issue with support of the standard setting process of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) advanced by critics of the evaluation of the standard setting process by the National Academy of Sciences and asserts that the achievement level descriptions developed for the NAEP no longer adhere to policy statements defining the…

Provides guidelines that trainers can use to make fair judgments in grading subjective essay examinations. Highlights include establishing criteria for scoring; clarifying lesson objectives; dividing each question into smaller components with weighted points for each section; developing grading guidelines; and the increasing use of computers to…

The Delaware Performance Appraisal Process includes indicators that contain subjective terminology and are open to various interpretations, leading to concerns about interrater reliability and professional staff morale. The Lake Forest School District developed a two-pronged approach that retains the three-observation method while eliminating the…

Investigated the unidimensionality of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) screening questionnaire and determined and validated a scoring of asthma-like symptoms seriousness. Data from 6,946 adults at 3 Italian screening centers found a single dimension underlying the screening questionnaire. A scoring of asthma-like symptoms…

Contains the guide used by scorers of the 12th grade persuasive writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), samples of student responses at each of the six levels of performance, and discussion of the scoring methods. (Author/SLD)

This study examined how well current software implementations of four polytomous item response theory models fit several multiple-choice tests. The main conclusion is that fitting polytomous item response models to multiple-choice item responses is more complex than fitting the three-parameter logistic model to dichotomously scored responses. (SLD)

The Career Maturity Inventory was revised in 1995 using previously unpublished longitudinal data for item selection. The new inventory has 25 attitude and 25 competence items, each yielding a score that measures degree of career maturity of conative and cognitive variables, respectively. (SK)