We describe the psychometric evaluation of the "Elementary Social Behavior Assessment" (ESBA™), a 12-item scale measuring teacher-preferred, positive social skills. The ESBA was developed for use in elementary school classrooms to measure teacher perceptions of students using time-efficient, web-based data collection methods that allow…

Rationale is presented for the derivation of a new measure of stressful life events for use with students [Negative Life Events Scale for Students (NLESS)]. Ten stressful life events questionnaires were reviewed, and the more than 600 items mentioned in these scales were culled based on the following criteria: (a) only long-term and unpleasant…

Objective: This study examines the psychometric properties of the revised Perceived Social Competence Scale (PSCS), a brief, user-friendly tool used to assess social competence among youth. Method: Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) examined the factor structure and invariance of an enhanced scale (PSCS-II), among a sample of 420 youth.…

Item development is a time- and resource-intensive process. Automatic item generation integrates cognitive modeling with computer technology to systematically generate test items. To date, however, items generated using cognitive modeling procedures have received limited use in operational testing situations. As a result, the psychometric…

Energy is one of the most central and richly connected ideas across all science disciplines. The purpose of this study was to develop a measurement instrument for assessing students' understanding of the energy concept within and across different science disciplines. To achieve this goal, the Inter-Disciplinary Energy concept Assessment (IDEA) was…

This study examined the dimensionality and measurement invariance of the Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile (KSEP) when used to rate the school readiness of children from different ethnic backgrounds (Latino or White, non-Latino), as well as from households where a different language was predominant (Spanish or English). Teachers rated the…

The Learner Profile (LP) frames International Baccalaureate (IB) learning outcomes across the three programme levels and, as such, plays a key role in measuring the success of the rapidly growing number of IB schools in the Asia-Pacific Region. Our aim was to develop an instrument to measure the IBLP and validate the instrument through a series of…

Previous studies have provided evidence that learner autonomy is an important factor in academic achievement. However, few studies have investigated the autonomy of distance education students in e-learning environments. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the e-learning autonomy of distance education students who are responsible for their…

This study examined and compared attitudes of both students and instructors, motivated by an interest in improving the development and delivery of online oral communication learning (OOCL). Few studies have compared student and instructor attitudes toward learning technologies, and no known studies have conducted item response theory (IRT)…

Purpose: This multiyear experimental study was designed to examine (1) the causal impact of McREL International's Balanced Leadership® Professional Development (BLPD) program on school principals' learning, beliefs, and behaviors and (2) whether there were differences in the types of outcomes the professional development influenced. Outcomes…

Youth who have disengaged from and subsequently returned to school are qualitatively different from students with continual educational enrollment. In this study, we examined the validity for two measures: the Adult Hope Scale (AHS) and Persistence in Goal Striving (PGS) Scale, among two samples of reengaged students (i.e., students who have…

Foreign language anxiety (FLA), which constitutes a serious problem in the foreign language learning process, has been mainly seen as a research issue regarding adult language learners, while it has been overlooked in children. This is because there is no an appropriate tool to measure FLA among children, whereas there are many studies on the…

The purpose of this article is to describe preliminary psychometric characteristics of a student self-report measure of self-determination, the "Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report" version (SDI-SR), designed for youth with and without disabilities. We administered the draft assessment to 311 youth and examined item functioning…

Intercultural understanding (ICU) is becoming an essential part of living and contributing effectively in our increasingly diverse society. In fact, ICU is a key capability in the Australian schooling curriculum, alongside other general capabilities such as numeracy and literacy. While there are current instruments assessing ICU, there is little…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) classifications have treatment implications for couples. This study tested the psychometrics of the Continuum of Conflict and Control Relationship Scale (CCC-RS) and examined differences between violence severity and CCC-RS scales. A sample of 575 low-income, ethnically diverse participants contributed data. Results…