The backlash against the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was raised to a new level when Connecticut's attorney general announced that his state plans to sue the U.S. Department of Education over the testing mandates in the sweeping federal law. In announcing his intentions, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he was inviting other states to…

The controversial practice of using unlicensed individuals to administered psychological tests has been questioned by some psychologists, professional organizations, state and provincial boards of psychology, state governments, departments of education, and third-party health care providers. This article provides an overview of the ethical, legal,…

In the project described in this chapter, discussions during group exams were analyzed to gain insight into how students make group decisions for their answers and the implications of their decision-making methods for deepening student understanding.

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA; 2004) permitted lack of students' response to intervention (RTI) to be considered as a basis for documenting specific learning disabilities (SLD). The previous method of detecting SLD, which relied on IQ and achievement testing, consequently is no longer mandatory.…

In this article, the author explains the key differences among three kinds of instructionally relevant tests that can have a huge impact on what goes on in classrooms: "instructionally insensitive tests," "instructionally sensitive tests," and "instructionally informative tests." If educators understand the advantages and limitations of these…

Twenty-three states are expanding their testing programs to additional grades this school year to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. In devising the new tests, most states have defied predictions and chosen to go beyond multiple-choice items, by including questions that ask students to construct their own responses. But many state…

Given the growth in scuba diving activities and the importance of environmental education programs to alleviate the potential impacts on coral reef ecosystems, there is a need to better understand the diving community, its environmental knowledge, and subsequent behavioral actions. The purpose of this study was to explore the role or influence of…

Capstone is defined in the dictionary as "putting the final stone in place." Business Policy or Strategic Management is typically the capstone class in a business management degree program. As such, there are prerequisite requirements in terms of courses and specific knowledge. We have implemented a competency test for the capstone class and…

Tests are a natural part of education, from the quizzes, essays, and classroom tests that teachers have traditionally administered to the high-stakes tests that states use to make decisions about graduation, promotion, and school funding and governance. In this article, the author stresses the need to learn the unintended consequences of…

With the arrival of calendar year 2004, there are some New Year's Resolutions that, if thoroughly considered, might make schools and districts more hospitable to children, parents and teachers. Everyone desires high standards, but the current path to achieving them is affecting the art of teaching while causing considerable stress and anxiety in…

Research on psychometric methods is heavily dependent on software. The quality, availability, and documentation of such software are critical to the advancement of the field. In 2000, an ad hoc committee of NCME recommended that NCME adopt policies that promote greater availability and better documentation of software. This article follows the ad…

Although there is a widespread belief that scaling up HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) programs in Africa will have large prevention benefits through reductions in risk behaviors, these claims are difficult to establish from existing evaluations of VCT. Considerations from behavioral models and the available data suggest that as VCT…

The purpose of this study was to revise and develop a coping checklist for sport. A higher order factor (engagement and disengagement coping) was identified to examine coping in sport situations. A revised 50-item Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC) was administered to 106 female athletes immediately after they had participated in a sport competition.…

Rereading can improve the accuracy of people's predictions of future test performance for text material. This research investigated this rereading effect by evaluating 2 predictions from the levels-of-disruption hypothesis: (a) The rereading effect will occur when the criterion test measures comprehension of the text, and (b) the rereading effect…

Although some types of inferences are mandatory for readers, predictive inferences (inferences for what will happen next) are generally considered elaborative or optional. Three experiments measuring probe word lexical decision latencies produced evidence for the online generation of predictive inferences during narrative text comprehension.…