Cultural competence has become a central social work tenet enshrined in the profession's ethical and educational standards. Few measures of cultural competence exist, however, in spite of an increasing array of religious, ethnic, and racial groups in U.S. society. This article develops a new measure to assess cultural competence among one family…

The California Chemistry Diagnostic Test (CCDT) was developed by chemistry faculties at the University of California, California State University, and California Community College systems to address dissatisfaction with existing chemistry assessment instruments. The instrument was tested at 25 campuses of the 3 systems, after which Glendale…

The estimation of the internal consistency of a newly constructed instrument using Cronbach's coefficient alpha is demonstrated. This study sought to determine the relationship, if any, between an individual's cognitive style and the preference for certain kinds of information used in making decisions. Cognitive style was determined with the Myers…

The role of theory in the restructuring of schools and curriculum is discussed. Theory is defined as a set of assumptions from which laws or principles may be derived. The descriptive, analytical, and predictive characteristics of theory are described. The examination of the relationship of theory to practice leads to the conclusion that they are…

Traditional methods of job and task analysis may be categorized as worker-oriented methods focusing on general human behaviors performed by workers in jobs or as job-oriented methods focusing on the technologies involved in jobs. The ability of both types of traditional methods to identify, understand, and communicate the skills needed in high…

As constructed-response items become an integral part of educational assessments, setting student performance standards on constructed-response items has become an important issue. Two standard-setting methods, one used for setting standards on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading in grade 8 and the other used to set…

Preliminary data was gathered to guide subsequent research that will shape training procedures and scoring practice for performance assessment activities that integrate multiple content areas. Content area integration is a key feature of many of the tasks in the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP), a large-scale assessment of…

This paper deals with the problems that arise in performance assessment from the granularity that results from having a small number of tasks or prompts and raters of responses to these tasks or prompts. Two problems are discussed in detail: (1) achieving a satisfactory degree of reliability; and (2) equating or adjusting for differences of…

The Arabic Picture Vocabulary Test (APVT) was derived from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test in order to provide an estimate of a student's acquired verbal ability in Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) through his or her aural vocabulary. It is an individually administered norm-referenced power test for students aged 5 to 9 plus years. Each item…

A cursory examination of current measurement texts used in teacher education reveals a treatment of such topics as test reliability, item analysis, and test interpretation based largely upon classical test theory. In the meantime, the landscape of the classroom has been significantly impacted by a growing emphasis on more authentic assessment…

The gain, or difference, score is defined as the difference between the posttest score and the pretest score for an individual. Gain scores appear to be a natural measure of growth for education and the social sciences, but they contain two sources of measurement error, error in either the pretest or posttest scores, and cannot be considered…

Most seasoned test developers recognize the importance of thoughtful decision making when constructing a test. Unfortunately, many classroom achievement tests are created by novice test developed who have not received sufficient instruction in item writing (G. Gulliksen, 1986; R. J. Stiggins, 1991). The result is often a test that is poorly…

The Educational Testing Service is developing a new generation of teacher assessments--the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. The assessment series consists of three components. An academic skills component will assess the candidate's basic academic and enabling skills. Subject assessments will test the candidate's…

A study examined the stability of career interests of adolescents using the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII). Participants were 271 freshmen from a rural Midwestern state who took the SCII two times, 3 years apart. Based on this sample, comparisons were made on occupational themes and basic interests of the SCII. Results revealed that…

The Self-Regulated Learning Inventory was developed to help researchers and teachers understand the concept of self-regulated learning and to provide a tool for identifying behaviors students need for academic success. Version One of the instrument contained 71 items representing the factors of metacognition, learning strategies, motivation,…