This study developed concordant relationships between American College Testing Program and Scholastic Assessment Test scores for students taking both examinations between October 1994 and December 1996. Fourteen universities and two state education departments participated in the study. Text provides information on data collection, sample…

Develops a multifaceted definition of faculty trust at three organizational levels in a survey of urban elementary teachers. Along with willingness to risk vulnerability, five faces of trust emerged: benevolence, reliability, competence, honesty, and openness. When teachers trust their principals, they usually trust one other and their clients.…

Considers the validity of Widdowson's discourse model of communicative competence and performance as the basis for developing tests of reading. Describes basic structure of the model and attempts to add to original description in such a way that is possible to design an operational test of the model components. The purpose of the model validation…

Discusses how recent court decisions and the move toward performance assessment may affect the adverse impact, reliability, validity, and pass-fail standards of teacher-certification tests. Recommendations are made for tests that combine multiple-choice items with open-ended tasks. (SLD)

Uses the various strategies involved in baseball to illustrate basic concepts in game theory. Specifically discusses Willie Mays' base-stealing strategy and how it relates to probability and risk. Reminds students that expected results depend on adopted assumptions. (MJP)

Evidence from test results of 3,604 sixth and seventh graders is provided for the generalizability and validity of the Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying Student Achievement and Reasoning (QUASAR) Cognitive Assessment Instrument, which is designed to measure program outcomes and growth in mathematics. (SLD)

Analysis of data from 661 students with cultural-familial mental retardation yielded a 37-item, 7-scale personality instrument that confirmed five hypothesized factors of Positive Reaction Tendency, Negative Reaction Tendency, Effectance Motivator, Expectancy of Success, and Outerdirectedness and identified two additional factors of…

This study examined factors associated with relative stability of peer rejection among elementary school-aged children. Results of prospective and retrospective analyses suggested that perceived social status, participation in extracurricular activities, locus of control, and parental monitoring were all positively related to status improvement…

Reviewed theoretical claims of identity status model and empirical studies on identity development in adolescence/young adulthood. Found support for assumption of a progressive direction in identity development. Examined data from longitudinal study of identity development and psychological well-being in Dutch adolescents; found that stability of…

This study tested the factor structure of coping and stress responses in Navajo adolescents and examined the reliability and validity of the Responses to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ; Connor-Smith, Compas, Wadsworth, Thomsen, & Saltzman, 2000) with this population. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a correlated five-factor model of…

Standardized portfolios are being used by teachers and teacher candidates to demonstrate subject matter knowledge for certification or to be considered highly qualified; however, the psychometric adequacy of data used for this purpose has not been evaluated. In the current study, we examined the interscorer reliability, concurrent, predictive, and…

The 1990s and early 2000s saw the increased development of advanced training, skills standards, and certification exams by private organizations in the United States. Employers began accepting these skill certifications in lieu of traditional on-the-job training, thereby encouraging employees to acquire more credentials. This article examines the…

Teacher judgments have been identified as a primary source of information regarding student academic achievement. Research examining the accuracy of teachers' judgments in assessing students' academic abilities has shown relatively high accuracy. However, previous studies have relied primarily on norm-referenced measures to obtain estimates of…

Deaf Education Teacher Preparation Programs must prepare teachers to staff an increasing number of oral programs. A survey was conducted to determine which competencies administrators of deaf education programs rate as important for teachers in oral programs and to compare ratings of these competencies by oral school administrators to ratings made…

The teaching portfolio has been proposed as a useful management tool for monitoring and improving teaching. It is one of the accountability mechanisms that universities have introduced in a market-oriented environment. However, there has been considerable resistance to the compulsory introduction of teaching portfolios from a wide range of…