Presents data on trends in mathematics and science achievement among U.S. students according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress and various international studies. (SM)

Item Response Theory and Mantel-Haenszel approaches for investigating differential item performance were compared to assess the level of agreement of the approaches in identifying potentially biased items. Subjects were 2,000 White and 2,000 Native American high school students. The Mantel-Haenszel method provides an acceptable approximation of…

Investigated relations among four scales that measure conceptually related career-development constructs through scaling of questionnaire completed by undergraduate students (N=252). Found all four scales measured related vocational constructs. Results suggest further research needed to determine relations among constructs and to specify what…

Investigated validity of Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children with 89 preschool Head Start children from low-income families, using Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale-Form LM as criterion measure. Found some support for concurrent and construct validity of both instruments for use with…

Examined utility and construct validity of Children's Depression Inventory and youth version of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Data from 1,207 students in grades 4 through 12 revealed no significant grade, gender, or race effects for either measure. Examination of convergent and discriminate validity revealed high…

Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) were administered in counterbalanced order to 35 referred students. Although K-BIT intelligence quotient (IQ) Composite correlated significantly with WISC-R Full Scale IQ scores, mean scores differed significantly. Results provide moderate support…

Research relating to the factor structure of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) and the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire is reviewed. Different opinions about the factors measured by the 16PF are discussed. Focusing on the second-order factor level could eliminate problems with the instruments' reliability. (SLD)

Correlations among measures of college outcomes were examined using 118 college students. Instruments studied were the College Outcome Measures Program; the Educational Testing Service Academic Profile; the Defining Issues Test; and the author-developed Sophomore Assessment Project Questionnaire. Commonly used measures tap similar outcome…

A method of automatically selecting items for inclusion in a test with constraints on item content and statistical properties was applied to real data. Tests constructed manually from the same data and constraints were compared to tests constructed automatically. Results show areas in which automated assembly can improve test construction. (SLD)

Comparison of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)-Revised and WISC III IQs for 64 students with specific learning disabilities and 55 students with mental retardation (MR) found that correlations were lower than those reported in the WISC-III manual. Only Performance IQs for students with MR matched the correlations reported in the…

Report on the current trends and issues in American public education involving personal views of state-mandated testing, the 2000 NAEP reading and math assessments, President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" initiative, TIMSS-R Benchmarking Studies, education vouchers, charter schools, and education management organizations. (Contains 52…

To examine the external validity of DSM-IV childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), 10 children (M = 8.2 yrs) with CDD and 152 gender- and age-matched children with autistic disorder (AD) were compared on 24 variables. The CDD children had a significantly higher rate of epilepsy, significantly less uneven intellectual functioning, and a tendency…

The effects of three classes of reinforcing stimuli were compared across three students with profound intellectual disabilities. A multielement design with no baseline and final "best treatments" phase was used to measure the frequency of single-switch activations by each student across treatments. The three interventions were Treatment A, adapted…

Our purpose was to investigate acculturation and eating disorders by examining the role of ethnic identity and by utilizing a bidimensional perspective toward two cultures. We predicted that orientation toward European American culture and lower ethnic identity would be positively associated with eating disorders. Participants were 188 Mexican…

Although testing accommodations are commonly provided to students with disabilities within large-scale testing programs, research findings on how well accommodations allow for comparable measurement of student knowledge and skill remain inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which 1 commonly held belief about testing…