The research literature suggests that the mental health professionals serving lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people may not be prepared to adequately address the unique needs of the population. There is a need to study the factors that influence the degree to which therapists attitudes and behaviors are affirmative toward their gay, lesbian, and…

This study examined the use of two locus of control instruments for teachers in the Caribbean: the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control (LOC) Scale (T. Wolf, M. Sklov, M. Hunter, and G. Berenson, 1982) and the Medway and Rose Teachers' LOC Scale (F. Medway and J. Rose, 1981). Participants were 183 teachers from 10 high…

This paper examines the use of portfolio evaluation in accrediting higher education teachers in the United Kingdom. It explains portfolios as an approach to authentic assessment and discusses the issue of reliability in portfolio assessment when teacher accreditation depends on it. Researchers investigated one course, collecting data on 53…

This document presents the transcript (and written statements) of a congressional hearing on the potential politicization of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the trustworthiness of the scores that the states received during the 1998 reading assessment. It addresses whether Vice President Al Gore's "release" of…

The Risk and Promise Profile is a 78-item, self-report, paper and pencil questionnaire that college personnel can use to outline for each student a profile of personal and social influences (e.g., motivations and deterrents) that are related to student success. This study assessed the predictive validity of the profile by examining the…

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, John G. Nicholls proposed the four developmental levels of motivational reasoning that focused upon the roles that ability and effort play in academic success. These levels theoretically begin at early childhood and end at adolescence. This report attempts to validate the developmental and predictive nature of…

The study's specific goals were to adapt conventional flow methodology to define and operationalize young children's cognitive strategies exhibited during their participation in adult-guided musical activities; and develop a valid and functional method of assessing young children's musical cognition "in situ" through systematic and…

The Preventive Coping Resources Inventory (PRI) was developed to assess specific coping resources most useful for stress prevention and also applicable to education settings. Undergraduates (N=501) at a large, southwestern university completed the inventory and other measures of adjustment and coping. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five…

Most often, new teachers default to the pedagogical practices they themselves were exposed to as teacher candidates. If teacher education programs are to promote the value of collaboration, they must teach and model collaborative pedagogy within their programs. This study is a qualitative examination of the soundness of two forms of collaborative…

Teacher beliefs are instrumental in defining teacher pedagogical and content tasks and for processing information relevant to those tasks. In this study, a Likert-type instrument, Mathematics Beliefs Scales (E. Fennema, T. Carpenter, and M. Loef, 1990), was used to measure the mathematical beliefs of teachers. This instrument was designed with…

The underlying factor structure of the Language Learning Strategy Scale (LLSS) (Y. Chen, 2001) was examined to determine its consistency across 2 distinct cultures. Variables that affected students' language learning were also identified. The validation study for the LLSS suggested a three-factor model of functional strategies, deep-processing…

This report responds to a request for information about the quality of the tests the City University of New York (CUNY) uses to decide who must take remedial courses and a profile of CUNY freshmen. Roughly 65% of CUNY bachelor's degree students and nearly 90% of associate degree students are required to take remedial courses in reading, writing,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is now accepted as the nation's report card, but getting there took over 30 years and a convoluted process beset by technical and political issues. After a summary of the history of the NAEP and its successful use as a monitoring instrument, the ramifications of the use of the NAEP as an…

Ideas about educational assessment are synthesized to construct a Quality Assessment Checklist that can be used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of classroom assessments. Sound assessment begins with clear and appropriate learning targets. Once learning targets have been identified, they need to be matched with appropriate methods.…

This study used Project Essay Grade (PEG) to evaluate essays both holistically and with the rating of traits (content, organization, style, mechanics, and creativity) for Web-based student essays that serve as placement tests at a large Midwestern university. In addition, the use of a TopicScore, or measure of topic content for each assignment,…