Based on 18 months of extensive research and study, the New Mexico State Department of Education developed the Staff Accountability Plan to address the issue of teacher accountability and certification. One of the provisions of the plan (a written assessment of general and professional knowledge for initial certification) will be fulfilled by…

Wheeless' trust and solidarity scales are examined under conditions of positive and negative target person. Valence of stimulus is shown to have a strong influence on the performance of the scales. The problems on Wheeless' scales were not detected in the original validation studies because of the normal validation paradigm. That paradigm…

A battery of physical ability tests was validated using a predictive, criterion-related strategy. The battery was given to 1,003 female soldiers and 980 male soldiers before they had begun Army Basic Training. Criterion measures which represented physical competency in Basic Training (physical proficiency tests, sick call, profiles, and separation…

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) has come under much criticism relating to the interpretation of the masculinity and femininity scales upon which its four sex role types are based. To investigate the masculinity-femininity construct using the BSRI under standard self-description instructions and under self-description instructions in one of two…

Since 1979, DeKalb Community College has used the Reading, English and Mathematics (REM) Test, which combines testing materials from three different sources, as an admissions and placement instrument. In spring 1984, a study was conducted to verify the results of a previous investigation, which had revealed significant correlation between REM Test…

Current status and new developments in behavioral assessment for clinicians and researchers are discussed. The field of behavioral assessment has attained a recognizable identity in recent years. Behavioral assessment can be defined as the identification of meaningful response units and their controlling variables for the purposes of…

Thirty normal first-grade students with a mean age of 7.0 years were administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability. Pearson intercorrelations among the summary indices of these cognitive measures were uniformly high, ranging from…

Concern for enhancing construct validity of vocational interest measures provides a focus for scale construction quite distinct from that derived from a criterion-referenced strategy: Construct-oriented measurement implies: (1) substantive definitions of dimensions; (2) concern for internal consistency reliability, as well as generalizability; (3)…

After an extensive review of the available research on large-scale writing assessment, certain issues in writing assessment seem to be unresolved, and still other issues are not supported by adequate research. This paper reviews the basic issues in writing assessment, points out which topics are supported by strong research, and which topics are…

Two validity studies of the College Board College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) Subject Examination in Elementary Computer Programming: Fortran IV determined that CLEP scores are appropriate for granting examination credit at the University of Texas at Austin. The standard-setting administration was in the spring of 1979, with a re-evaluation…

Previous research with adult subjects has indicated that the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Socialization Scale (SO) is one of the most useful assessment instruments for the identification of individuals with antisocial personality disorder. In order to develop a simple measure to better identify those children at risk for future…

Future research in Follow Through should be eclectic and comprehensive. In particular, the setting for Strand Two of the National Institute of Education's (NIE) research program for Follow Through should provide opportunities for sponsors of innovations to implement programs targeted at many outcomes. There should be a commitment to measuring…

The purpose of the study was to use confirmatory factor analysis techniques to assess the adequacy of previous validity studies related to the structural and theoretical dimensions underlying a measure of self-concept, the Piers Harris Children's Self Concept Scale. Responses from 890 students in grades 3-6 were used as input to the LISREL program…

Security procedures for the New Jersey High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) are discussed and evaluated. All New Jersey high school students are required to pass the HSPT, which was administered for the first time in 1984. Generally, security plans are designed to limit access to test questions prior to test administration and to prevent…

The reliability and validity of the Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) and Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) scales developed by D. Watson and R. Friend (1969) were tested for their use with university students in Thailand. Thai translations of both tests were administered to 176 university students on two occasions, with a month between…