Discusses research into the external validity of simulation games used in education, i.e., the degree to which the games correspond to the real-life situations they are designed to simulate. An exploratory study examines the validity of a business game and potential problems of validity research are examined. (JJD)

It is suggested that the developmental phases of program evaluators replicate those of the profession of program evaluation. A trend in program evaluation from program amelioration to program advocacy and ultimately to program accountability is projected. (Author/MH)

A 5-stage method using an idealized model to identify roles of school system personnel and assess their level of implementation was developed to examine the roles of those school system employees who were or should have been involved in the innovative Curriculum Resources Information Bank (CRIB) project. (SB)

Examines strengths and weaknesses of several needs assessment techniques currently in use and concludes that exclusive use of any single technique will likely provide a biased or inaccurate assessment of community mental health needs. There is a critical need to empirically investigate the reliability and validity of these needs assessment…

The estimation of the "size of effect" of educational programs is a difficult problem in program evaluation. It is argued that the intentions of the program and the nature of the measures must be known in order to estimate program effects. (JKS)

Critiques research findings on the effectiveness of the Early Intervention Project (EIP) for children with autism. The review finds sufficient threats to the experimental validity of the EIP to prevent unqualified endorsement of it as a validated treatment for children with autism. The review found in particular there were threats to external…

This article highlights difficulties in replicating the Andras Peto Institute for Motor Disorders in Hungary by establishing the Birmingham (England) Institute for Conductive Education, for children with cerebral palsy. Difficulties included a lack of conductive education principles in clear English, failure to properly identify children who could…

We recently reported that fear extinction, a form of inhibitory learning, is selectively blocked by systemic administration of L-type voltage-gated calcium channel (LVGCC) antagonists, including nifedipine, in mice. We here replicate this finding and examine three reduced contingency effects after vehicle or nifedipine (40 mg/kg) administration.…

A method is presented for generalized canonical correlation analysis of two or more matrices with missing rows. The method is a combination of Carroll's (1968) method and the missing data approach of the OVERALS technique (Van der Burg, 1988). In a simulation study we assess the performance of the method and compare it to an existing procedure…

The Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI; H. R. White & E. W. Labouvie, 1989) is a frequently used measure of alcohol-related consequences in adolescents and college students, but psychometric evaluations of the RAPI are limited and it has not been validated with college students. This study used item response theory (IRT) to examine the RAPI on…

This study investigated the level of generalizability across a few high quality assessment tasks and the validity of measuring student writing ability using a limited number of essay tasks. More specifically, the research team explored how well writing prompts could measure student general writing ability and if student performance from one…

This study examined contextual effects in Norwegian 10th-grade students' reports on cognitive and metacognitive strategies when using the Cross-Curricular Competencies (CCC) instrument. The CCC was first administered as the final task in a long (three-hour) testing session in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Program for…

There is a great need to identify specific instructional methods that effectively promote positive skill development in young children with developmental disabilities. One method that has received strong empirical support with children with autism is Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT); however, the effectiveness of DTT has not been extensively…

School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has been implemented in more than 4,000 schools as a means of addressing problem behavior in a systemic fashion. Preliminary outcomes (e.g., office discipline referrals, suspensions) indicate the effectiveness of SWPBS in decreasing school-wide behavior problems and creating a positive school climate.…

This study applied the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model to measure outcomes of general education courses (GECs) under the University of Botswana Computer and Information Skills (CIS) program. An exploratory model was validated for responses from 298 students. The results suggest that resources currently committed to…