A University of New Mexico medical school program to evaluate students having difficulty with noncognitive professional traits (responsibility, reliability, maturity, self-assessment, communication, honesty, integrity, respect for patients and peers) has identified 10 students with difficulties and provided interventions and remediation over a…

Explores the cumulative impact of repeated standardized testing on student attitudes and motivation. By high school, a large number of students, especially low achievers, become disillusioned about tests, are less motivated to give genuine efforts, and increasingly use inappropriate test-taking strategies, undermining test validity and genuine…

Identifies problems with the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) as a survey instrument for use with non-Western students. A study using ASI attempted to examine the effects of secondary educational experiences on Fiji college students' study habits. Responses suggested the students were influenced by an acquiescent response bias. (MJP)

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new learning environments instrument designed to aid investigators and practitioners in measuring and researching the psychosocial learning environment in post-secondary distance education. Using a three-stage approach, the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) was…

The physical education curriculum in the state of South Carolina is representative of a trend towards increasing instruction in health-related fitness concepts. In 1994 the South Carolina state legislature mandated that the required physical education course in high school include one semester of lifetime fitness and one semester of personal…

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the largest and most ambitious study undertaken by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Forty-five countries collected data in more than 30 languages. Five grade levels were tested in the two subject areas, so that more than half a million…

This paper reviews the 12 career assessment instruments that have been found to be most used in Texas with students with special needs. Two tables list the instruments along with the opinions of users concerning their qualities. The reviews follow a standard outline. Each review is one to two pages in length and provides this information: title,…

The creation and validation of a Spanish version of an English developmental spelling test (DST) is described. An introductory section reviews related literature on the rationale for and construction of DSTs, spelling development in the early grades, and Spanish-English bilingual education. Differences between the English and Spanish test versions…

This paper reports the results of observation skills training via an interactive multimedia training program for preservice teachers at Lincoln University (Missouri). The training program provides multiple videos for users to practice six types of observation methodologies, comparisons to "expert" data, and on-line access to procedural…

The purpose of this study was to provide teachers, supervisors, and school administrators with a valid scale for measuring teacher attitudes toward low achievers in mathematics: the Teacher Attitudes Toward Low Achievement in Mathematics Scale (TALAM). The development of the instrument was carried out in three phases. Phase 1 consisted of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effectiveness of English placement examinations used at five junior colleges in California; (2) the direction and distance of context required by college…

This project first identified the duties and tasks required of an entry-level auto mechanic (AM) and an auto body worker (ABW), using a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) occupational analysis process. In this process, a panel of local, expert workers determined the essential duties and tasks of their occupations. Next, the panel identified…

Criteria for the selection of judges (evaluators) for setting item-based standards involved in tests for which cutting scores must be established are investigated. Focus is on cases in which test standards are based on specialists' judgments concerning the difficulty of test items in tests used to determine who will be awarded a diploma, admitted…

The Verbal Peer Adult Emotional Scale (VPAE), a behavioral rating scale for measuring the progress of severely maladaptive children, covers four areas: verbal behavior, peer interaction, interaction with adults, and emotional behavior. The 16-item scale is designed for use with children between the chronological ages of two and nine years, who are…

The effects of test content reflecting black or white culture, on the performance of college-bound students of both races was examined. Eighty-five culture-specific items were developed for use in the English Usage and Social Studies Reading subtests of the ACT (American College Testing) Assessment Program. Items were administered as four separate…