The article examines issues related to establishing a rationale for the use of early childhood rating scales and to selecting a rating scale using such criteria as user needs, user friendliness, scale format, score interpretation, reliability, and validity. Methods of establishing the validity of a rating scale are suggested. (Author/DB)

Influences on the educational validity of examinations are reviewed. Changes occurring in approaches to standard setting are traced. A view of reliability is presented, with emphasis on assessment of project work, which often involves individual investigation and design by students. A consistency index formula for grading standards is presented.…

Argues that the original Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) test scores indicated large mismatches between the average difficulty of the textbooks used in each grade and the average ability of students in that grade. Presents a rescaling procedure to provide new, valid DRP test scores and grade equivalent scores for selecting instructional materials.…

Developed and administered Reasoning about Abortion Questionnaire (RAQ) to measure how persons view abortions. Pilot tested the RAQ on 134 college students and modified scale on basis of data. Administered revised RAQ to college students (N=230) replicating factor pattern and obtaining evidence for validity of polarity scores through structured…

Reviews recent developments in the use of commercially available written integrity tests for employee selection. Discusses legal issues related to the use of the polygraph and integrity tests, and reviews empirical research on the reliability, criterion-related validity, construct validity, fakeability, and adverse effects of integrity tests. (TE)

A study in four first-year dental school classes found that while the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a good measure of dental students' personality traits, it is not a useful measure for predicting first-year achievement. (MSE)

Examines whether using a combined silent reading-listening mode to administer the "Social Studies Inference Test" optimized information gathering. Finds that the combined modality produced more correct inferences than did silent reading alone. Finds only one gender difference--girls'"caution score" was higher than that for…

Six behavior rating scales used with children with problematic behaviors were reviewed for psychometric soundness of reliability and validity. They are: Behavior Dimensions Rating Scale; Behavior Evaluation Scale; Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form; Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale; Revised Behavior Problem Checklist;…

The internal correlation--a measure of dependency in a set of variables--is discussed and generalized. Applications of the internal correlation coefficient and its generalizations are given for several data-analytic situations. The internal correlation is illustrated and the concept is expanded to a series of additional indices. (TJH)

Use of internal correlation for statistical analysis--proposed by G. W. Joe and J. L. Mendoza (1989)--is discussed. Focus is on the "content" question (what this application can do with the information that statistics contain) and the "eloquence" question (the advantages of this means of encoding information over other means). (TJH)

The evaluation of a parent-completed screening system, the Infant Monitoring Questionnaires, found: 86 percent to 91 percent agreement between classifications of infants made using standardized tests and the questionnaires, low under-screening and over-screening rates (0 percent to 11 percent), high inter-observer and test-retest agreement, and…

The review of the Test of Written Language-2 (TOWL-2) raises concerns about alternate forms reliability, subtest reliability, content validity, and omissions. It concludes that the TOWL-2 is an expanded and greatly modified version of the original test but may not be appropriate for identifying a student's specific writing problems. (DB)

The purpose of this study was to field test and estimate the validity and reliability of a set of generalizable interpersonal skills assessment strategies and procedures on handicapped children in secondary vocational programs. If the instruments and procedures are valid and reliable, they could be used to identify their generalizable…

Subjected Modified World Affairs Questionnaire (MWAQ) to comparable common factor analysis which identified five factors: civil defense, escalation, nuclear war outcome, probability/worry, and patriotic. Alpha coefficients and test-retest reliability were determined to be adequate for the first four subscales. Acceptable discriminant validity and…

An analysis of the Sport Orientation Questionnaire, a multidimensional, sport-specific measure of individual differences in achievement orientation, indicates that it is a valid and reliable measure of individual sport achievement orientation. (JD)