The Standard English Repetition Test (SERT) is an instrument designed to measure the Standard English (SE) performance of young Hawaii Creole English (HCE)-speaking children. HCE is colloquially referred to as "pidgin English." Details of the test's construction are given; test-retest and alternate form reliability and validity studies…

This study was conducted for four reasons: (1) to identify research studies in the area of sex role behavior conducted between l970 and l977 in the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and education; (2) to survey operational definitions of the term "sex role"; (3) to examine the techniques and instruments used to gather sex…

A majority of seventy-three studies dealing with the effect of desegregation on black achievement conclude that desegregation has a beneficial effect on black achievement scores. These findings are in agreement with various national surveys that have found black achievement higher in predominantly white schools. However, a number of desegregation…

The authors argue that personnel who select standardized achievement tests have been led to believe that the major achievement test batteries differ very little in terms of the topics they test; but that the content covered by these major tests is different, and that such differences have consequences for instructional content. To test this…

This paper presents the Discrepancy Evaluation Model (DEM) as an overall strategy or framework for both the improvement and assessment of effectiveness of simulation/games. While application of the evaluation model to simulation/games rather than educational programs requires modification of the model, its critical features remain. These include:…

The diagnosis of children as learning disabled (LD) has become an increasingly popular diagnostic rubric, but the operational definition of "learning disabled" remains a vague, ill-defined construct which is based upon diagnosis by exclusion of other obvious causes. Diagnostic test results and cultural and familial information taken from case…

A rationale is presented for the "control items" technique, the technique of using control (nonexperimental) test items to provide a baseline for estimating the effects indicated by scores on the experimental test items. For evaluating the effects of a curriculum, a test can be made of two types of items--ones that test explicit program objectives…

Techniques for assessing test validity and reliability are applied to an analysis of an unpublished test, in order to familiarize test users in local bilingual programs with the technical evidence that should be available for instruments of potential use in placing limited English-speaking students. The instrument studied, the Language Assignment…

To improve the reliability of selection interviews, the faculty of the University of Texas Medical Branch physician's assistant program developed a structured fourteen-category interview. The thirty-minute interview was used to select from 94 applicants; each applicant was interviewed three times and independently rated on a five-point scale of…

Hunt and O'Donnell's Aluminum Paragraph was administered to sixty Canadian college students enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. The students were asked to re-write and to improve a paragraph consisting of 32 short, single-clause sentences. The students were identified as low intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced in…

A procedure is described for adding to the usefulness of students' ratings of college instructor effectiveness. This procedure begins with the students responding to a rating scale; in this instance a 25-item, 5-poing scale, but other scales might be used. Then the students are asked to write brief comments on three of those items which they rated…

Classical multiple regression was compared with Bayesian m-group regression, complete with cross-validation. The setting was a post-developmental studies situation in a comprehensive community college. A secondary purpose of the study was to incorporate an advisor prediction of grade point average (GPA) as input into both regression procedures.…

This report summarizes a research project on the Child Development Associate (CDA) assessment and credentialing system. The issues covered in the report fall under two general categories: validity (the ability of the CDA assessment/credential system to identify competent child care staff) and career development potential (the benefits of the CDA…

Instruments to measure decision-making skills of grade 5, 8, and 11 students were developed as a part of Pennsylvania's statewide assessment program. A decision-making model was formulated based upon John Dewey's five major steps of the critical thinking process: (1) identify the problem; (2) establish the facts; (3) formulate the hypothesis; (4)…

Many researchers have questioned the validity of the underlying assumptions, the psychometric properties, and conceptualizations for both the older and new measures that generate two independent scores for masculinity and femininity. The assumptions of bipolarity and unidimensionality and the construct validity of existing masculinity/femininity…