This study examines the impact of the Learning Strategies Curriculum (LSC), an adolescent reading intervention program, on 6th- and 9th-grade students' reading comprehension and strategy use. Using a randomized treatment-control group design, the study compared student outcomes for these constructs for 365 students who received daily instruction…

Objective:This report extends earlier accounts by addressing the effects of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program across 65 months. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) Rural African American youths randomly assigned to participate in SAAF would demonstrate lower rates of alcohol use than would control youths more than 5 years later, and…

Given that sexually offensive behavior on the part of people with intellectual disabilities has been identified as a significant problem, we developed a risk assessment questionnaire, that takes not only various static and dynamic factors into account but also environmental risk variables. Psychologists and staff members completed this Risk…

REL Appalachia conducted a systematic review of the research evidence on the effects of increased learning time. After screening more than 7,000 studies, REL Appalachia identified 30 that met the most rigorous standards for research. A review of those 30 studies found that increased learning time does not always produce positive results. However,…

The effect of different types of rating task instructions on rater behavior was examined using experts, as opposed to novices, as raters. The experts were instructed to (1) form a global categorical judgment (early hypothesis generation); (2) assess 19 detailed elements; or (3) both. Subjects were 8 dental faculty members who ranged in age from 28…

Three personality measures were administered twice each with an interval of four weeks between administrations, and the response consistency of these tests was analyzed. The evidence is equivocal. The confounding of consistency effects with other sources of variance remains a problem. (Author/CTM)

This article is concerned with estimation of components of maximum generalizability in multifacet experimental designs involving multiple dependent measures. An example of a two-facet partially nested design is provided. (Author/RC)

It would appear that traditional modelsof reliability, in which reliability estimates for an individual are estimated from group data, could yiel more accurate estimates if individual difference variables, such as response consistency, were taken into consideration in the estimation of reliability. (DG)

Investigated the interrater reliability of teachers' and school psychology externs' scoring of protocols for the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI), using a revised scoring system. Results showed high reliability coefficients for all raters, regardless of the scoring system employed. The influence of rater training is discussed.…

A competence assessment instrument that measures cognitive complexity used structured interviews to investigate means-goal relationships in different work activities. Validity and reliability were confirmed by two tests of interrater reliability and six tests of validity (content, face, and criterion). (Contains 27 references.) (SK)

Two occupational therapists rated 13 students after 1-week placements, using the Performance Evaluation of Occupational Therapy Students (PEOTS). The instrument had good interrater reliability but test-retest reliability was difficult to evaluate. Preliminary findings support the use of PEOTS as an evaluation tool. (JOW)

Analyzed the assessments of 53 portfolios used to evaluate participants in a development course for higher education teachers at the United Kingdom's Open University. Findings included a high reliability in assessment at the level of course outcomes, and that cumulation of component assessments is very likely to reduce the reliability of overall…

In this study, self-reports of 34 individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) were compared with proxy ratings from family and providers. Correlations between the ratings of individuals with DD and the proxy raters were low, as were the correlations between family members and providers. In all scales except "cognition," the individual with DD…

The reliability of scores for the "Draw-A-Person Intellectual Ability Test for Children, Adolescents, and Adults" is examined with a sample of 110 college students from two universities in the southeast. The alpha coefficient for the total sample and the interscorer and intrascorer reliability for a subset of 31 students are analyzed.…

The point estimate of sample coefficient alpha may provide a misleading impression of the reliability of the test score. Because sample coefficient alpha is consistently biased downward, it is more likely to yield a misleading impression of poor reliability. The magnitude of the bias is greatest precisely when the variability of sample alpha is…