Purpose: Primary education (PE) forms the foundation of high-quality education systems, but it is often underestimated. This paper aims to develop and empirically validate a measurement instrument to study the current stage of total quality management (TQM) implementation in PE. Design/methodology/approach: This study developed a seven-dimensional…

School climate measurement is a long-standing topic in educational research. This review article provides an overview and appraisal of school climate measures published between 2003 and 2013 in scientific journals. A search for published school climate instruments for secondary school students was made in three databases. Twelve articles meeting…

Purpose: This policy brief, the second AERI-NEPC eBrief in the series "Understanding validity issues around the world", focuses on validity as it applies to test-based models of evaluation employed for schools, instructional programs, and teachers around the world. It discusses validity issues that could arise when data from student…

Counseling and educational professionals are encouraged to understand the research behind the theory and the development of a measure of personality in addition to the application of the measure. Personality assessment, especially in relation to the Enneagram classification system of personality, has been dramatically changing. Personality…

Consistent with calls for a greater marketing emphasis to be included in career counselling practice, this study uses marketing concepts to explore the relationship between the expectations people in career transition have of a career counselling service and the perceptions career counselling service providers have of these expectations. The study…

A study was conducted at Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) in South Carolina to assess the college's admissions testing program through a review of the current literature on placement testing and a statistical study comparing currently employed instruments, i.e., the Career Planning Program (CPP) test and the Scholastic Aptitude Test…

This review of 50 social validation research studies involving persons with handicaps concludes that social validation procedures are an appropriate and important component of applied behavior analysis. Discussed are methodological issues, social importance of effects, social significance of goals, social appropriateness of procedures, and…

This article provides a review of current literature on the comparative validity of different functional assessment and analysis strategies. It describes functional assessment as an outcome-driven process and explains observational assessment strategies and using assessment information to plan interventions. A proposed process for teachers and…

Although by traditional measures of test validity, the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is not culture biased, it, along with the English Composition Test and the Test of Standard Written English, reinforces a narrow view of academic excellence that excludes culturally different youths. Designed to prevent admission errors, the…

The article reviews validity and reliability studies on the informal reading inventory, a diagnostic instrument to identify reading grade-level placement and strengths and weaknesses in work recognition and comprehension. Gives suggestions to improve the validity and reliability of existing inventories and to evaluate them in newly published…

This research brief summarizes the available reliability and validity data available in, but spread throughout, a number of General Educational Development (GED) Testing Service publications. A section on reliability discusses how to determine reliability of a test's scores and two ways of assessing the reliability of a test--internal consistency…

The article examines issues related to establishing a rationale for the use of early childhood rating scales and to selecting a rating scale using such criteria as user needs, user friendliness, scale format, score interpretation, reliability, and validity. Methods of establishing the validity of a rating scale are suggested. (Author/DB)

Standardized reading tests are likely to provide an inaccurate assessment of reading comprehension for deaf students due to the lack of test coaching and test taking skills; item irrelevancy; and the difficulty of test directions. Testing alternatives include parent and teacher observation of students and qualitative evaluations of reading skills…

In the United States, standardized educational tests have been used for assessment purposes in grades K through 12 almost since the inception of the testing movement in the early 1900s. Because test-based assessment can have wide-ranging positive or negative effects on K-12 students, the test user must ensure that the tests used for assessment…

Points out that variability in focus, method, and conceptual level of case studies causes difficulties in validating such studies. Notes method variations raise questions about validity. Claims the validity of case studies lies in their usefulness as projective models. States teachers can generate their own theories where practical educational…