Surveyed 325 school personnel to examine the content validity of the Light's Retention Scale (LRS), assessing the use of selected retention criteria from the scale. Results indicated that several criteria were not typically considered in retention decisions and the remaining criteria varied widely in their use. (Author/JAC)

Evaluates the Medical Career Development Inventory, a measure of career maturity, with student-physicians (N=160). Results indicated that it is possible to construct a measure of vocational development for a population of adults encountering a common set of vocational development tasks. (LLL)

Describes the three-phase development of the Psychological Distress Inventory (PDI), an instrument designed primarily to measure life stress in college students. Standard psychometric information is presented, including reliability, validity, and some effects of response set. The PDI allows users to separately assess degree of depression, anxiety,…

Reviews underlying reliability, theoretical assumptions, and validity of several "fear of success" tests. Also examines the validity of the fear of success construct itself. Concludes that continued use of the label "fear of success" only reinforces belief in a scientifically unfounded concept of intrapsychic difference between…

Investigated the interrelationship of self-concept measures in a cross-validation study of 134 intermediate grade children. Multiple regression analysis of self-report and behavioral inference instruments supported the hypothesis that self-constructs are strongly rooted in the method by which they are assessed. (JAC)

This paper examines item response theory (IRT) scale transformations and IRT scale linking methods used in the Non-Equivalent Groups with Anchor Test (NEAT) design to equate two tests, X and Y. It proposes a unifying approach to the commonly used IRT linking methods: mean-mean, mean-var linking, concurrent calibration, Stocking and Lord and…

"Scale Up in Education, Volume 1: Ideas in Principle" examines the challenges of "scaling up" from a multidisciplinary perspective. It brings together contributions from disciplines that routinely take promising innovations to scale, including medicine, business, engineering, computing, and education. Together the contributors explore appropriate…

Because of the great promise of distance learning for delivering cost-effective instruction, there is great interest in determining whether or not it actually is effective, and--more interesting--determining what variables of design and implementation make it more or less effective. Unfortunately, much of the research has been based on simple…

This report asserts that rapid changes in many areas, such as technology and communications, marked the 20th century, the first century of ability testing. Predictions about the second century of testing seem difficult in such a context. Yet, looking back to the turn of the last century, E. Kirkpatrick (1900) in his American Psychological…

Herzog and Wallace (A. Herzog and R. Wallace, 1997) discussed a measure designed to assess the cognitive functioning of older adults who participated in the study formerly known as the Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old (AHEAD). The measure derived from four well-known tests of cognitive functioning, but improves on them by combining…

The Working Alliance Inventory of Supervisory Relationships (WAI-SR) was designed to evaluate the three factors--an agreement on goals, an assignment of tasks, and the development of a bond--of a working alliance between supervisor and trainee as proposed by Bordin (1983). The items for the WAI-SR were drawn from the Working Alliance Inventory and…

A Web-based survey of 25 experts in testing theory and large-scale assessment examined the utility of out-of-level testing for making decisions about students and schools. Survey respondents were given a series of scenarios and asked to judge the degree to which out-of-level testing would affect the reliability and validity of test scores within…

The authors provide a reference on how to set standards on tests in education, licensure, and certification. This book is comprehensive in scope, practical in nature, and definitive in terms of cataloguing the essential conceptual and procedural fundamentals of setting performance standards. It: (1) Offers a detailed description of procedures; (2)…

The concept of self-directed learning has become increasingly important in educational and work organizations as a result of trends that require learners to become more responsible for their own learning to remain highly skilled and knowledgeable in a competitive marketplace. To assess self-directedness in the Korean context, a relatively new…

This paper discusses the use of two theories of item analysis and test construction, their strengths and weaknesses, and applications to the design of the Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies (HSTEC). Traditional analyses of the data collected from the HSTEC field test were viewed from the perspectives of item difficulty levels and item…