Reflects on Steward and Steward's exploration of memory of touch--and aspects of the situation in which touch is experienced--and considers some of the ways in which research on children's remembering can be applied to the difficult task of assessing what child witnesses can remember about salient and often difficult experiences. (AA)

Discusses whether it is possible for a medical visit to inform a child abuse investigation, whether children share common experience in a medical visit and in a touch situation, the importance of initial interview, and the need for training of investigative interviewing with children. (AA)

A college faculty member who has graded Advanced Placement exam essays on U.S. government and politics, taken mostly by high school juniors and seniors, suggests that high school teachers and college faculty who assess the essays are not the best qualified persons to do so and that despite efforts to ensure consistency, the resulting scores are…

A faculty consultant to the Educational Testing Service for advanced placement (AP) test reading in U.S. government and politics responds to an article criticizing essay evaluation methods and criteria, finding in it a fundamental misunderstanding of the AP reading process and explaining why the essays are subject to less scrutiny for style,…

This special series focused on treatment integrity in the child mental health and education field is timely. The articles do a laudable job of reviewing (a) the current status of treatment integrity research and measurement, (b) existing conceptual models of treatment integrity, and (c) the limitations of prior research. Overall, this thoughtful…

Against a shifting set of assessment preferences in the US regarding whether educational assessment should continue to be a states rights game or become a federally dominated undertaking, the publication of five first-rate analyses about England's national curriculum assessment (NCA) is particularly propitious. Taken together, these five papers…

The purpose of the study was to describe the development and application of an instrument to identify various dimensions of the learning environment, as perceived by elementary and middle school students in Taiwan. The instrument, the New Constructivist Learning Environment Scales, includes four dimensions: attitude concerning instruction,…

This study investigated the development and validation of a 32-item scale that measures "Internet-Savviness" (IS). Relationships between this multidimensional construct and other primary variables of interest including age, gender, Internet access, Internet location, and Internet activities were explored. The sample population consisted of 241…

Fear of being stigmatized is the most cited reason why individuals avoid psychotherapy. Conceptually, this fear should be strongest when individuals consider the reactions of those they interact with. Across 5 samples, the authors developed the Perceptions of Stigmatization by Others for Seeking Help (PSOSH) scale. In Sample 1 (N = 985), the 5…

Validity and reliability data are presented for two instruments for assessing the predispositions that people have toward the use of assistive and educational technologies. The two instruments, the Assistive Technology Device Predisposition Assessment (ATDPA) and the Educational Technology Predisposition Assessment (ETPA), are self-report…

Across the field of educational assessment the case has been made for alternatives to the multiple-choice item type. Most of the alternative types of items require a subjective evaluation by a rater. The reliability of this subjective rating is a key component of these types of alternative items. In this paper, measures of reliability are…

The effectiveness of the "read-comp" technique in assessing writing ability and the usefulness of a rubric and procedure devised for scoring read-comp samples and essays were evaluated. Subjects were 100 freshman students enrolled in general and remedial English classes in a 6-week summer session at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.…

Locally developed occupational tests were administered to 16- and 17-year-olds in a government-sponsored vocational education program in the United Kingdom over a six-month period in 1984. Job skills were tested in two occupational areas: use of a micrometer and invoice completion. Some performance tests were designed by researchers and some by…

The influence of day-to-day variation in teacher performance on the reliability and validity of teacher assessment was examined. An attempt was made to identify and quantify sources of score variation attributable to differences in teacher performance, day of observation, observers, and test subscales; and to determine their effects on reliability…

IN THIS REPORT THE UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS (UFT) ANALYZES SPECIFIC DATA FROM THE CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION'S (CUE) NEGATIVE EVALUATION OF NEW YORK CITY'S MORE EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS (MES) PROGRAM AND CHARGES THAT CUE'S CONCLUSIONS ARE INVALID. THE UFT MAINTAINS THAT SINCE 18 OF THE 21 MES WERE FORMER SPECIAL SERVICE (SS) SCHOOLS, CUE SHOULD HAVE…