This report provides an overview of the research on the testimony of young children in cases of sexual abuse, focusing on preschoolers' presumed suggestibility and the role of researchers and mental health professionals as expert witnesses in such cases. It does so in light of the McMartin preschool case, in which seven defendants were acquitted,…

The development of the Home and Family Questionnaire (HFQ) is described and exploratory factor analyses and initial reliability studies are reported. The HFQ, which incorporates many of the items from the HOME Observation Inventory for Elementary School Children developed by B. M. Caldwell and R. H. Bradley (1984), evaluates home setting and home…

In July 1994, College of the Canyons (COC) in California conducted several predictive validity studies of the College Board Assessment and Placement Services (APS) Reading Test. COC began using the 35-question objective format test in spring 1993. Fall 1993 test scores were used in determining the ability of the APS Reading Test to predict student…

If a student writes two essays, the score reliability can be estimated from the correlation between essays. However, if the essays are in different modes or require different skills, the reliability may be underestimated from the correlation. In Advanced Placement history examinations, students wrote one standard essay and one essay that required…

The stability of bias estimates from J. Schueneman's chi-square method, the transformed Delta method, Rasch's one-parameter residual analysis, and the Mantel-Haenszel procedure, were compared across small and large samples for a data set of 30,000 cases. Bias values for 30 samples were estimated for each method, and means and variances of item…

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) were developed to score responses from a previously designed police written communication test that lacked reliability. Rating scales for each of the 9 dimensions of the test consisted of the scale definition and a 5-point continuum, with the scores of 5, 3, and 1 defined by specified behavioral…

The mission of the "Journal of Counseling and Development" (JCD) includes the attempt to serve as a "scholarly record of the counseling profession" and as part of the "conscience of the profession." This responsibility requires the willingness to engage in self-study. This study investigated two aspects of research…

Data reported in this paper were collected as part of a larger longitudinal study of the development of young Chicano or Mexican American children and their families. The measures completed by the children included the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, a standardized instrument that measures general intellectual level. The first three…

The purpose of the Time-Out Parent Inventory (TOPI) is to provide an objective and quantitative assessment of a parent's self-reported use of time-out procedures to manage a child's behavior. The TOPI is intended to be a tool for researchers as well as professionals who help parents and children. The professional asks the parent a series of 12…

This paper addresses the evaluation of the testing of writing of foreign languages and compares two evaluation methods: the analytical method and the holistic method. The analytical method focuses on the mechanics of writing where the writer is measured against a set of empirical standards and a composition is dissected for the critical points.…

A factor analysis study provided empirical evidence of the validity of the modified Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES) and its three subscales: mathematics problems self-efficacy, mathematics tasks self-efficacy, and college courses self-efficacy. The MSES was administered to 522 undergraduate students from three state universities and…

Generalizability theory (G-theory) and many-facet Rasch measurement (Rasch) manage the variability inherent when raters rate examinees on test items. The purpose of G-theory is to estimate test reliability in a raw score metric. Unadjusted examinee raw scores are reported as measures. A variance component is estimated for the examinee…

This report describes the development of a rating scale and direct observation measure to monitor the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in the home or school setting. The study applied an accuracy-reliability paradigm to validate the newly created rating scale and observation measure. An incontrovertible index using a scripted…

This monograph describes the third edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) and its relationship to reading/learning disabilities. It is designed for educators and students in education who want to go beyond the numerical values of the WISC-III intelligence quotients and understand the implications of the scores for the…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…