Examines federal data on trends in inclusion of students with disabilities. Text and tables show placement settings for students with disabilities, changes in placement settings across categories from 1988-89 to 1994-95, trends across categories, and the overall trend toward increased inclusion of students in all disability categories. (DB)

Examines the reliability and validity of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) with 89 young adolescents from an inner-city school. Participants were assessed in their classrooms and then individually retested and interviewed. Results suggest that the RADS provides a reliable and valid assessment of depressive symptomatology in young…

Presents a critical review of religious attribution literature. Discusses the development of an instrument to measure religious attributions of responsibility for problem cause and solution. Also discusses analysis of the instrument. Presents research questions that would advance current understanding of religious attributions and notes…

Focuses on students' understanding of electric circuits. Findings suggest that children's interpretive frameworks of electric circuits are reflected in the specificity of the details, consistency, and coherence of their understanding. Contains 23 references. (DDR)

School districts often lack the capacity for turning vast amounts of existing student-performance data into useful information for helping teachers and improving classrooms. The California Accountability Project helps districts to function more systematically on behalf of children and to understand schools' pockets of success and underperformance.…

Explores the factor structure of the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Survey, a parent rating scale designed for use in the assessment of child and adolescent anxiety. Surveys (N=176) from parents of children in kindergarten through grade 11 were utilized. Factor analysis suggests that one second-order factor yields an internal consistency estimate of…

Demonstrates that parents' education is linked to changes in adolescent (N=350) self-reported physical health through the level of and changes in parental rejection. The study also finds that parents' education has a significant, direct effect on subsequent changes in adolescents' self-reported health status. (Author/MKA)

The reliability and validity properties of the Brigance K&1 screen were examined with a sample of 134 Head Start children preparing to enter kindergarten. Prediction/outcome analyses, intended to explore the test's accuracy in predicting special-education status at the end of preschool, indicated a relatively high false negative rate and a…

Compared four standard-setting procedures for an objective structure clinical examination (OSCE) in medical education. Applied Angoff, borderline, relative, and holistic procedures to the data used to establish a cutoff score for a pass/fail decision. The Angoff and borderline procedures gave similar results; however, the relative and holistic…

Tests the premise of peer cluster theory as it applies to individual alcohol use, and makes a comparative analysis between its ability to explain alcohol use and marijuana use among college students (N=1312). Results of the causal models show some support for peer cluster theory. Discusses the study's limitations and implications. (Author/MKA)

This essay argues that reliability should be reconceptualized in a way that reflects the importance of the theoretical expectations of the test specialist and the learning and problem solving of the test takers. It is time to characterize clearly the substantive theoretical framework supporting reliability studies and the technical evaluation of…

Review of research using data from five British national demographic surveys showed that secondary analyses occurred less often in education; such analyses focused on the effect of educational qualifications on employment; and some data remain relatively unexploited. (SK)

This longitudinal study with 62 children and adolescents examined the validity of the consolidation/transition model in the context of moral reasoning development. Results of standard statistical and Bayesian techniques supported the hypotheses regarding cyclical patterns of change and predictors of stage transition, and demonstrated the utility…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to provide an organizational framework for data collected from an entering class of students (N=1,912). Results from the EFA indicated that items on surveys could be grouped into dimensions that can be used to plan student services. Factors that emerged included: Religion/Spirituality, Help Seeking,…

Interactive digital video enables computer visualization techniques that help students to collect, analyze, and model two-dimensional motion data. This article describes and evaluates five activities developed for the physics classroom with the use of this technology in mind. Activities explore concepts such as space, time, frames of reference,…