Whether in the science or language laboratory, carrying out health care procedures or demonstrating performance arts, faculty can improve skill evaluation through transparency and authenticity in exam construction, format, and grading.

This study investigates teachers' assessment practices across teaching levels and content areas, as well as teachers' self-perceived assessment skills as a function of teaching experience and measurement training. Data from 297 teachers on the Assessment Practices Inventory were analyzed in a MANOVA design. As grade level increases, teachers rely…

The Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF), a 25-item rating scale, was developed to identify the function(s) of maladaptive behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities. The authors adapted it for use with individuals with serious mental illness who engage in maladaptive behavior and assessed the psychometric characteristics of the…

Developed and tested a 20-item measure of work-family interface with child care providers. Confirmed five factors: general overload, conflict of family to work, spillover of family to work, spillover of work to family, and conflict of work to family. Regression lines for low, medium, and high levels of work-family interface indicated that high…

The teaching and assessment of essay writing at primary schools throughout Vietnam is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training. The analytical error-recognition method of assessment, however, does not facilitate direct interpretation of students' writing competence. In this study, which involved samples of Grade 5 students in five…

The authors of this article discuss customizing parent education which requires customized assessment. At Auburn University, Kreg Edgmon and Wally Goddard developed a parent assessment based on the National Extension Parent Education Model (NEPEM) (Smith, Cudaback, Goddard, & Myers-Walls, 1994). All items in the parent assessment were tested with…

In low-stakes testing, the motivation levels of examinees are often a matter of concern to test givers because a lack of examinee effort represents a direct threat to the validity of the test data. This study investigated the use of response time to assess the amount of examinee effort received by individual test items. In 2 studies, it was found…

With the increased globalization of psychology and related fields, having reliable and valid measures that can be used in a number of languages and cultures is critical. Few guidelines or standards have been established in psychology for the translation and cultural adaptation of instruments. Usually little is reported in research publications…

Background: Assessing the quality of life (QOL) for families that include a person with a disability have recently become a major emphasis in cross-cultural QOL studies. The present study examined the reliability and validity of the Family Quality of Life Survey (FQOL) on a Spanish sample. Method and Results: The sample comprised 385 families who…

Reliance on subjective grant proposal review methods leads private philanthropies to underfund mental health programs, even when foundations have mental health focuses. This article describes a private mental health foundation's efforts to increase the objectivity of its proposal review process by developing a reliable, valid proposal rating form.…

This article reports on the initial validation of the Fatherhood Scale (FS), a 64-item instrument designed to measure the type of relationship a male adult had with his father while growing up. The FS was validated using a convenience sample of 311 males. The assessment packet contained a demographic form, the Conflict Tactics Scale (2),…

Purpose: "Medication administration hassles" are the minor daily irritants that family caregivers experience when they assist a dependent family member with medication regimens. This study was designed to develop and test a multidimensional measure of the hassles in family caregiver medication administration. Design and Method: The authors…

An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programmes in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and…

Extensive practice and research in program evaluation have led to this eight-step process that a professional developer can use to determine a program's effectiveness and strengthen the program as it evolves. An unbiased, systematic process of evaluation can help justify putting resources into professional learning and make it easier to determine…

The purpose of this study was to develop the Scale for Program Facilitators (SPF) to assess the effectiveness of after school achievement programs through four steps: (a) identification of a theoretical framework, (b) formulation of the initial scale, (c) test of content validity, and (d) conducting confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). A…