This article describes the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a general assessment of personal and social sufficiency of individuals from birth through adulthood to determine areas of strength and weakness. The instrument assesses communication, daily living skills, socialization, and motor skills. Its administration, standardization, reliability,…

This article describes the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, a comprehensive measure of achievement for individuals in grades K-12. Eight subtests assess mathematics reasoning, spelling, reading comprehension, numerical operations, listening comprehension, oral expression, and written expression. Its administration, standardization,…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a well established tool for formative assessment. CBM has also been used for prediction of state test scores. However, validity coefficients between math-CBM and state tests have been moderate at best (Skiba, Magnusson, Martson, and Erickson, 1986; Martson, 1989; Putnam, 1989). The purpose of the present…

Science and technology are connected to each other and are mutually inspiring. The science-technology curriculum for junior-high school in Israel suggests that teachers integrate these subjects. In addition, this curriculum calls for infusing thinking competencies into the learning subjects and for implementing alternatives in assessment methods…

This article reports the development, validation and use of a survey for assessing students' perceptions of their e-learning environments. The Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES) was administered to 325 students, 131 in Australia and 194 in Hong Kong. The data were analysed to examine 1) the reliability and validity of the survey, 2)…

State and federal mandates for education reform call for increased accountability and the inclusion of students with disabilities in all accountability efforts. In the rush to implement high-stakes education reforms, particularly those involving tests or assessments, the particular needs of students with severe cognitive disabilities are only now…

Despite a body of evidence that curriculum-based measurement of reading (R-CBM) is a valid measure of general reading achievement, some school-based professionals remain unconvinced. At the core of their argument is their experience with word callers, students who purportedly can read fluently, but do not understand what they read. No studies have…

The "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" generated by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL 2000) provides a plausible set of pedagogical goals to guide the construction and implementation of an undergraduate research methods course. We argue that the context of the undergraduate methods…

This edited volume contains 15 chapters. Part one, "Language Teaching, Language Learning, and Literacy," has three chapters: "The Monolingual Teaching and Bilingual Learning of English" (Henry G. Widdowson); "Literacy: The Extension of Languages Through Other Means" (Ellen Bialystok); "Bilingual Processing…

At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the call for all students to be "proficient" in reading and mathematics by 2014. Yet the law expects each state to define proficiency as it sees fit and design its own tests. This study investigated three research questions related to this policy: (1) How consistent are various…

The purpose of the NMSBA technical report is to provide users and other interested parties with a general overview of and technical characteristics of the 2006 NMSBA. The 2006 technical report contains the following information: (1) Test development; (2) Scoring procedures; (3) Calibration, scaling, and equating procedures; (4) Standard setting;…

In 2004, the Lumina Foundation for Education approved a generous grant to support validation research to explore and document the validity of the Community College Student Report (CCSR), add to the higher education field's understanding of student engagement, and help to identify research or institutional practices that require further attention.…

The School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale (SACERS) presented in this booklet is a comprehensive rating scale for school-age child care programs that is based on criteria for developmental appropriateness for this age group. The SACERS is intended to be used in center-based care rather than in family child care homes. The booklet begins with an…

This paper discusses the use of Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores and other elements affecting institutional accountability in the University of Maryland system. It asserts that SAT scores in and of themselves are not accurate predictors of retention and success. The publication of SAT scores of first-time, full-time freshmen clearly is as…

In order to evaluate the validity of outcomes assessment at two-year colleges, the American College Testing (ACT) Program developed "Project Cooperation." Institutions participating in the project administered tests and surveys to measure changes in students' cognitive abilities over time and record student feedback, and reported the…