The authors describe the construction of the Career-Related Parent Support Scale and examine the validity of the scale scores within a sample of at-risk middle school adolescents. Four empirically distinct parent support factors were confirmed along A. Bandura's sources of self-efficacy information. Gender and ethnic differences in perceived…

This study examined the psychometric and normative properties of the ADHD-Symptoms Rating Scale with preschool children. Results shed light on normative levels of ADHD behaviors and preschool children and suggested that preschoolers may present with a somewhat different symptom pattern than school-age children. Parents were more likely to endorse…

Evaluates the Lynch Enabling Survey for Parents (LESP), and determines the scale to be reliable and valid. Also examines the differences between at-risk and honors students and their parents' LESP scores. Results reveal that the LESP scores of parents of at-risk students were significantly more enabling than were the responses of parents of honors…

This book summarizes the evaluation by the Committee on the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) of the National Research Council of the U.S. Employment Service's use of the GATB. The book serves professional users, policymakers, and students of psychometrics because of its clear and concise review of important issues. (SLD)

Standardized patient case problems were administered to approximately 280 final year medical students. Results indicate that performance on a given component of clinical competence shows less consistency when measured on different cases than does performance on different components measured on the same case. (TJH)

The literature on testing has documented the existence of persistent anomalies in test scores of bilingual students. School psychology, which is test-dependent and test-defined, has an inadequate technology and knowledge base to deal with the testing of bilingual students, leading to error and misdiagnosis exacerbated by lack of viable testing…

Use of multiple-choice achievement tests is critiqued. Multiple-choice tests are considered heavily weighted toward aptitude and ill-suited to assessment of thinking. Psychometric methods for the development of alternatives to this inadequate form of testing achievement are discussed. (TJH)

Results from this study indicate that a cutoff consisting of the mean plus a half standard deviation is more desirable than the original mean plus one standard deviation strategy for categorizing respondents into a "pure" identity status. Status-specific comparisons indicated groups were not significantly different on measures of…

A test of pharmacists' practice knowledge, for use in professional continuing education, was developed by having practitioners prepare 673 assessment items related to specific competencies. Item pool was refined by psychometric evaluation and content validation. Two parallel tests, each containing 120 items, were pilot-tested with first-year…

Effects of reviewing items and altering responses on examinee ability estimates, test precision, test information, decision confidence, and pass/fail status were studied for 376 examinees taking 2 certification tests. Test precision is only slightly affected by review, and average information loss can be recovered by addition of one item. (SLD)

Six methods of scoring multiple true-false items were compared in terms of reliabilities, difficulties, and discrimination. Results suggest that, for norm-referenced score interpretations, there is insufficient evidence to support any one of the methods as superior. For criterion-referenced score interpretations, effects of scoring method must be…

Examined quantitative evidence of an intellectual growth spurt during early adolescence by combining modern psychometric modeling, computerized testing with the Raven progressive matrices, and longitudinal socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Found that gender difference was not significant. Notes the impact of this evidence on educational…

Reliability and validity of 4-point and 6-point scales were assessed using a new model-based approach to fit empirical data from 165 graduate students completing an attitude measure. Results suggest that the issue of four- versus six-point scales may depend on the empirical setting. (SLD)

Rasch calibration procedures were applied to item-response data for the 1,262 infants and toddlers comprising the standardization sample for the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Analyses tend to confirm the psychometric integrity of the instrument. (Author)

Argues that Jensen's article contains an inaccurate and misleading account of Spearman's work and distorts the basic concepts of factor analysis. The target article has failed in all its main objectives; its major failing is a result of the irrelevance of factor analysis to the study of group differences. (SLD)