Background: Many speech and language therapists work in a multilingual environment, making cross-linguistic studies of speech disorders clinically and theoretically important. Aims: To investigate the effect of listeners' linguistic background on their perceptual ratings of hypernasality and the reliability of the ratings. Methods &…

The standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education require that teacher education programs document teacher candidates' effectiveness across different domains. Most challenging for our program is the directive to document the impact that candidates have on preK-12 student learning. To gather information on the effects…

This paper discusses whether there are differences in performance based on differences in strategy. First, an attempt was made to determine whether the institution had a strategy, and if so, did it follow a particular model. Major models of strategy are the industry analysis approach, the resource based view or the RBV model and the more recent,…

Genetically informative data can be used to address fundamental questions concerning the measurement of behavior in children. The authors illustrate this with longitudinal multiple-rater data on internalizing problems in twins. Valid information on the behavior of a child is obtained for behavior that multiple raters agree upon and for…

Understanding complex systems is fundamental to understanding science. The complexity of such systems makes them very difficult to understand because they are composed of multiple interrelated levels that interact in dynamic ways. The goal of this study was to understand how experts and novices differed in their understanding of two complex…

The Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender version (VRS-SO) is a rating scale designed to assess risk and predict sexual recidivism, to measure and link treatment changes to sexual recidivism, and to inform the delivery of sexual offender treatment. The VRS-SO comprises 7 static and 17 dynamic items empirically or conceptually linked to sexual…

There are few well-standardized measures of conversational breakdown in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The study's objective was to develop a scale for measuring pragmatic impairments in conversations of individuals with ASD. We analyzed 46 semi-structured conversations of children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD using a functional…

This study compared different stakeholders' perceived validity of various indicators of student learning used to judge the quality of students' academic performance. Data were gathered from the questionnaire responses of 314 educators in three states that have implemented comprehensive state-wide assessment programs with high-stakes consequences…

This retrospective longitudinal study was designed to show grading leniency patterns of judges within and across clinical examination administrations. Data from 17 different administrations of the histology examination of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists over 10 years were studied. Over the 10 years there were 4,683 candidates and 57…

Metaphor has recently become a topic of considerable interest and empirical investigation. Cognitive theories view metaphor as an aid to cognitive restructuring. Beyond the heuristic and theoretical concepts, the results of empirical research have suggested that metaphor is a potentially valuable tool for enhancing client involvement in counseling…

Many empirical studies have examined factors that influence ratings of performance. This study examined the rating variable performance of a single individual. Serial position of a single poor or good performance in a series of otherwise good or poor performances was manipulated to examine its effects on both ratings and recommended actions toward…

A study of interrater reliability among 17 faculty members assessing medical student case reports revealed marked disparities in the criteria raters felt to be important and an unacceptable spread in the ratings given. A standardized assessment instrument is recommended instead. (MSE)

Problems in studying teacher effectiveness through the use of classroom observation are discussed. Four assumptions in the observation of classroom process are offered and ways in which these assumptions can be dealt with in designing an observation study are suggested. (DF)

Two studies concerned with agreement in ratings of temperament are reported. Ratings of the mothers of toddlers versus daycare workers were compared on the Toddler Temperament Scale (Study 1), and on ratings of a videotape of a 2-year-old child for responses relevant to six dimensions of temperament (Study 2). (Author/BN)

Proposes a highly structured six-step employment interviewing technique which includes asking the same questions, consistently administering the process to all candidates, and having an interview panel. Results of a field study of 243 job applicants using this technique demonstrated interrater reliability, predictive validity, test fairness for…