Examines ideological representations of how slavery began and a slave's trip to America (the Middle Passage) as depicted in classroom texts in California public schools. Explores the controversy over the adoption of these supposedly multicultural textbooks through interviews with eight African-American parents and four multicultural education…

Describes recent efforts of the Center for Research in Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) to evaluate authentic assessment methods, such as portfolios and performance tests. When comparing the merits of authentic versus multiple-choice testing, it is wise to consider validity, reliability, consequences, fairness, generalization,…

The relationship between grade point average (GPA) and scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) for 60 male and 7 female Asian graduate students in engineering was studied. The TOEFL is not an effective predictor of total GPA, although it measures English communication skills. (SLD)

A test with 1,446 high school students in Israel of a multidimensional model of adolescent drug use that incorporates sociodemographic variables, personality variables, cognitive variables, interpersonal factors, and the availability of drugs validated the model longitudinally. Results suggest that different legal and illegal substances share a…

Five countable indices of writing quality were examined for their suitability in making special education screening-eligibility decisions, based on writing samples from 2,160 students. Even the best index was only moderately efficient. "Percentage of words spelled correctly" was best overall, and "percentage of correct word sequences" was best for…

Presents a study of the effect of question order on student performance on economics tests. Reports that question order has no statistically significant effect on examination scores, even after including variables that reflect differential human capital characteristics. Concludes that instructors need not worry that some examination versions give…

Educational researchers are not engaged in discovering mechanistic universal truths sought by positivists or tidy prescriptions about what works. Instead, they provide guidelines and interpretive material to liberate the teacher's intelligence so that the teacher can use whatever ability he or she can achieve. (SLD)

This paper offers a rationale for and a description of the creation of the Developmentally Delayed Children's Behaviour Checklist, which is completed by caregivers or teachers and uses a taxonometric model to describe the child's (ages 4-20) disturbed emotions and behaviors. Results of clinical validation studies are cited. (Author/JDD)

The Competence Enjoyment Scale (CES) was developed to measure parental feelings of competence and enjoyment as they interact with their infants. Mothers of 60 full-term healthy, preterm healthy, and preterm atypical infants were administered the CES to evaluate the instrument. Preliminary results support the reliability and validity of the scale.…

Convergent validity of expert-systems scores for 4 complex constructed-response mathematical formats was assessed for 249 examinees from the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test in June 1989. The hypothesized five-factor model fit the data well, but an alternative with two dimensions (GRE-quantitative and constructed-response)…

The Preschool Development Inventory (PDI) obtains parents' assessments of their children's present development and possible problems. Of 220 children (ages 3 and 4), 11% obtained low General Development Scale scores, whereas 14% showed potential major obstacles to learning. Data concerning the PDI's sensitivity/specificity indicate that parents'…

Federal law requires that individuals with handicapping conditions be administered assessments in ways that accommodate their disabilities without penalizing them. Validation studies are needed to evaluate the meaning of scores resulting from nonstandard test administrations. The limited number of these studies to date is reviewed. (SLD)

A broad description is given of admissions procedures to Israeli universities. In Israel, a single unified test, the Psychometric Entrance Test, is used for admission to the various universities. Issues of validity and reliability and problems of ensuring fairness for non-Hebrew speakers are considered. (SLD)

A study at Tel Aviv University (Israel) demonstrated the utility of a faculty evaluation form on which the global "overall teaching performance" score can almost perfectly predict the mean of all teacher-attribute items for physics and chemistry faculty. However, for teaching assistants, a linear transformation is needed. (Author/MSE)

The seven chapters of this issue focus on technical qualities of performance assessments and report the findings of systematic empirical inquiries. They add to the body of research that shows that performance assessment, although time consuming and expensive, merits the serious attention of educators. (SLD)