Results from a performance assessment in which 68 high school students wrote essays support the use of latent variable modeling for estimating reliability, concurrent validity, and generalizability of a scoring rubric. The latent variable modeling approach overcomes the limitations of certain conventional statistical techniques in handling…

Examines conditions for improving children's predictions about their own academic performance. First-grade children were paired and assigned to one of four groups created by varying whether the pair was asked to collaborate on a performance prediction and was rewarded for the accuracy of that prediction. Neither of the two treatments, nor…

Interviews with 11th-grade students about their most effective teachers indicated that their best teachers cared about their students as well as the subject matter. They integrated the cognitive and affective domains of teaching and learning and were interested in their students as people, acting as positive role models. (SM)

The degree of agreement between evaluations of trainee biology teachers using students' perceptions of teacher skills and characteristics obtained from Science Student Perception Questionnaire (SSPQ) and evaluations of these same teachers by their university supervisor and their school supervisors was determined. Results indicate an agreement and…

Studied is the validity of a theoretical model of achievement behaviors of 746 eighth grade students. Hypothesized effects of value of mathematics and expectations for success were not apparent. Direct influences on achievement for male were prior achievement and value, but for females, influences of difficulty, male domain stereotyping, and…

The validity of several criticisms of objective tests is addressed, and the viability of some alternatives to objective testing is discussed. Evidence against multiple-choice tests is not as strong as has been claimed. Authentic assessments may not always be better, and research about new forms of assessment is necessary. (SLD)

Use of performance gaps analysis in program evaluation is examined by analyzing and critiquing the gap reduction design as an experimental design and an analytic tool in program outcome evaluation. The example of the Bilingual Education Evaluation System illustrates the contention that disadvantages of the method outweigh its contributions. (SLD)

A principal-agent framework is used to examine potential gains in educational performance and potential threats to public accountability that school-based decision-making proposals pose. Analysis underscores the need to tailor the design of decentralized decision making to the sources of poor educational performance and threats to school…

Evaluation of problem-based learning tutorials with 70 medical students found that, when tutors had expertise in the clinical cases studied, student groups generated twice as many learning issues, and issues were three times more congruent with the case objectives. Additionally, groups with expert tutors spent more time overcoming identified…

The effectiveness of alternative procedures to correct for rater leniency/stringency effects was studied when true scores were known. Ordinary least squares, weighted least squares, and imputation of the missing data consistently outperformed averaging the observed ratings; and the imputation technique was superior to the least squares methods.…

Alternatives to multiple-choice tests for teacher licensing examinations are described, and their advantages are cited. Concerns are expressed in the areas of cost and practicality, reliability, corruptibility, and validity. A suggestion for reducing costs using multiple-choice responses calibrated to constructed-response tasks is proposed. (SLD)

Describes government funding of university-based research in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Examines problems in research evaluation and related public policy, particularly the link between evaluation and funding, issues of efficiency and incentive compatibility, and impact of performance evaluation on researcher behavior. Appendix…

Reviews theories on job satisfaction and evaluates their relevance to the work environment of libraries. Analyses of data from survey of Nigerian librarians seem to indicate that some of the theories are irrelevant in that context because survey respondents agree that their level of job satisfaction is directly determined by amount of money they…

This article reviews literature supporting the relationship of emotional factors and success in reading and writing activities, outlines physical and language behaviors that indicate emotional involvement with success or lack of success in comprehension, and presents strategies that help children understand what they need to do to read and write…

Describes the development of a model for competency at Rutgers University-Camden's library that can be used in the hiring process as a tool to evaluate job candidates for technical services positions. Interview experiences using the model, both with current employees and with prospective candidates, are discussed. (five references) (LRW)