Compared classical test theory (CTT), generalizability theory (GT), and multifaceted Rasch model (MFRM) approaches to detecting and correcting for rater variability using responses of 4,930 high school students graded by 3 raters on 9 scales. The MFRM approach identified far more raters as different than did the CTT analysis. GT and Rasch…

The Missouri Occupational Card Sort (MOCS) and the Self-Directed Search were completed by 298 college students and 97 Upward Bound students. MOCS demonstrated adequate reliability. Holland's hexagonal model did not serve as an adequate factor structure for MOCS. Participants favored the MOCS. (SK)

Develops a measure for operationalizing how employees verbally express their contradictory opinions and disagreements about organizational phenomena. Tests the Organizational Dissent Scale (ODS) in a series of studies designed to generate evidence of validity/reliability for the measure. Indicates that the scale measures how employees express…

This study examined the test-retest reliability of SCAN, a popular screening test for determining the possible presence of a central auditory processing disorder in children. Testing and retesting using a six- to seven-week interval with 25 first-grade and 22 third-grade children found significant improvement from test to retest for both grades.…

Describes the development of an instrument to measure substance abuse counseling orientations. The Powerless-Empowerment Scale, which was developed by investigating its reliability and viability, demonstrated initial promise as an instrument that can be used in a variety of settings in the substance abuse field. (Contains 22 references.) (GCP)

Investigates the factor structure and reliability of the Saint Louis Symptom Checklist (SLSCL) with an adolescent sample. An exploratory principal components factor analysis followed by a varimax rotation of 209 male and female adolescents yielded eight conceptually relevant factors. Discusses directions for future research. (Contains 11…

Studied rater reliability, internal scale validity, and person response validity of the School Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (School AMPS) using results for 208 elementary school students, some with educationally related disabilities. Results support rater reliability, scale validity, and person response validity of the School AMPS as a…

Constructs and tests two measures of audience response to performance of literary text. Finds that the first measure (analyzing audience response to open-ended questions) was useful in discriminating responses across performances, but needs further work in clarifying relative importance and interrelationships; and the second measure (a…

Analysis of scores of 180 college students on the short form of the Career Decision Making Self Efficacy Scale suggests that the short form possesses psychometric characteristics comparable to or better than the long form. Short form subscales are sufficiently reliable, and concurrent validity correlations are largely better, with only half the…

Discusses the importance of assessment of materials on the World Wide Web that may be freely accessible to both instructors and students. Evaluates web sites that cover the periodic table in terms of content and design. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/YDS)

Presents a rationale for using single-subject research designs to examine the effects of therapeutic recreation (TR), offering a description of single-subject research designs, examining research requirements, explaining data analysis through visual inspection, presenting examples of single-subject research designs, and concluding that this…

Compared three residual-based methods for indexing school effectiveness using data from elementary schools in Maryland. Results indicate that the hierarchical linear model approach had higher stability across achievement test forms. Results further suggest that when only school-level data are available, the use of either of the school-level models…

Used an analytic rubric to score 120 writing samples from Georgia's 11th grade writing assessment. Raters augmented scores by adding a "+" or "-" to the score. Results indicate that this method of augmentation tends to improve most indices of interrater reliability, although the percentage of exact and adjacent agreement…

Studied the interactive effect of instructional strategies enhanced with text-plus-textual metaphors or text-plus-graphical metaphors and cognitive style on the acquisition of programming concepts using a measure of cognitive style and the QUEST Interactive Test Analysis System. Results for 203 undergraduates support the reliability of the…

Evaluation of the home environments of 64 families of children with severe disabilities 7 and 9 years after the initial assessment found a high degree of stability, especially on the Family Environment Scale (FES). However, internal consistency reliability of the FES was lower for these families than in the standardization samples. (Contains…