Developed and validated the Ideal Mentor Scale (IMS), a new measure designed to help graduate students consider the qualities they as individuals most value in a potential mentor. Found that two universal qualities were central to students' definitions of a mentor: communication skills and provision of feedback. Three individual differences…

H. Levene (1960) proposed a heuristic test for heteroscedasticity in the case of a balanced two-way layout, based on analysis of variance of absolute residuals. Conditions under which design imbalance affects the test's characteristics are identified, and a simple correction involving leverage is proposed. (SLD)

Compared selected methods of assessing the structure of tests with dichotomous items using real data from a 62-item test of reading ability and computer-generated data for multiple unidimensional and multidimensional cases. All methods performed reasonably well over a relatively wide range of conditions. (SLD)

Proposes an analytic approach to standard error and confidence interval estimation of scale reliability with fixed congeneric measures. The method is based on a generally applicable estimator stability evaluation procedure, the delta method. The approach, which combines wide-spread point estimation of composite reliability in behavioral scale…

Discusses the difficulties many chemical engineering faculty face in assessing learning outcomes of education and explains the steps of rubric development which aims to assess students based on individual outcomes. (Contains 17 references.) (YDS)

Developed an instrument to measure the aerobic exercise equipment preference of a frail older population and applied many-facet Rasch analysis to study construct validity and equipment preferences. Results for 16 participants show the usefulness of many-facet Rasch analysis in guiding instrument revision. (SLD)

Sought to develop an instrument allowing assessment of undergraduate attitudes toward non-traditional students. Data were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis that revealed the presence of two factors. The first factor consisted of primarily positive statements and accounted for 14.9 percent of the variance. The second factor consisted of…

Created and tested the Senior Concerns Survey. An exploratory factor analysis revealed four areas of concern for college seniors: career related concerns, change and loss related concerns, graduate/professional school related concerns, and support related concerns. (EV)

Examined the case of adaptive testing under a multidimensional response model with large numbers of constraints on the content of the test and items selected using a shadow test approach. Illustrated the procedure with five different cases of multidimensionality that differ in the numbers of ability dimensions and test structure with respect of…

Presents an alternative to measuring student overall satisfaction that uses, rather than a simple "yes/no" question, a multiple-item weighted gap score analysis approach. Results suggest that this approach may have more diagnostic value to both academics and practitioners. (EV)

Explains the process of creating, implementing, and getting results from a usability study of a library Web site while spending little or no money, based on experiences at the Kansas City Public Library. Topics include how to design the test; finding volunteers to participate; and how to use the results. (LRW)

Studied whether the characteristics of the optimal categorization identified by Rasch analysis in a previous study could be maintained when the revised scale was applied to the same population (206 members of the original adult sample). Overall, the Rasch model fit well, and similar change patterns were observed in two category statistics provided…

Studied whether the theoretical sampling distribution of the U3 person-fit statistic is in agreement with the simulated sampling distribution under different item response theory models and varying item and test characteristics. Simulation results suggest that the use of standard normal deviates for the standardized version of the U3 statistic may…

Discusses the development of an assessment of mouse proficiency for children and describes construction of the assessment, the content of the test, and its content validity. (Contains 26 references.) (JOW)

A series of studies refined 17 scales of the Expanded Skills Confidence Inventory (n=934) and validated it with an adult sample (n=972). Scales were internally consistent, showed predictable patterns of gender differences, and were highly related to predicted Holland confidence themes. Discriminant analyses across 8 largest occupational groups…