The purpose of this article of reflection is to raise awareness of how poor design of language assessments may have detrimental effects, if crucial qualities and technicalities of test design are not met. The article first discusses these central qualities for useful language assessments. Then, guidelines for creating listening assessments, as an…

The TOWRE-2 was developed to provide an efficient measure of two essential wordlevel reading skills, sight word reading and phonetic decoding skills. The Sight Word Efficiency (SWE) subtest assesses the number of real words that an individual can read from a vertical list within 45 s. This subtest is designed to measure the size of an individual's…

The general education teacher has the greatest influence on a student's success in school, and a teacher's attitude towards inclusion is a major factor in determining whether inclusion will be successful. The ATTAS-mm is a 9-item scale with strong reliability and validity. The three subscales: believing all students can succeed in general…

This study examined the effect of linguistic modification on middle school students' ability to show what they know and can do on math assessments. REL West's study on middle school math assessment accommodations found that simplifying the language--or linguistic modification--on standardized math test items made it easier for English Language…

This paper describes the development and validation of a new 40-item Internet Attitude Scale (IAS), a one-dimensional inventory for measuring the Internet attitudes. The first experiment initiated a generic Internet attitude questionnaire, ensured construct validity, and examined factorial validity and reliability. The second experiment further…

The Westside Test Anxiety Scale is a brief, ten item instrument designed to identify students with anxiety impairments who could benefit from an anxiety-reduction intervention. The scale items cover self-assessed anxiety impairment and cognitions which can impair performance. Correlations between anxiety-reduction as measured by the scale and…

Purpose/Objectives: The National School Lunch Program is well situated to address the vulnerability of lower income children at increased risk for both under and overnutrition. Evidence suggests, however, that a significant amount of food served in the program goes uneaten. One way to monitor this problem is through children's self-reported plate…

In the process of education, instead of classifying students according to their insufficiency, teachers should try to get to know them and determine their cognitive, sensorial, and kinetic characteristics. This study on improving learning style inventory, which aims to help classroom teachers determine students' attributes in individualized…

This article describes the development and evaluation of a short form of the 24-item Adaptation to Age-Related Vision Loss (AVL) scale. The evaluation provided evidence of the reliability and validity of the short form (the AVL12), for significant interindividual differences at the baseline and for individual-level change in AVL scores over time.…

The purpose of this article is to describe the processes followed to develop an authentic, reliable and valid play-based assessment of communication-related behaviours in young children with severe disabilities. The Daily Multiple Measurement Instrument (DMMI) was developed to be used based on an intervention package of play activities. The…

A project is reported that developed a test for students in foreign language in the elementary school (FLES) programs. Relevant tests in Spanish and English as a Second Language (ESL) were reviewed in order to develop a listening and reading test that could determine achievement in a typical FLES curriculum. Pilot testing was conducted with 121…

The Bilingual Oral Language Test (BOLT-English) was pilot tested in January 1976, field tested in April 1976, and again in October, November 1976, on a population of more than 3,000 students in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pomona, Riverside, and Palm Springs, California. Results reported include concurrent validity values of .9 and .86 when…

The Client Observation Checklist (COC) was developed to evaluate Project ADAPT's intervention in three behavioral areas: bathing; dressing; and socialization. Project ADAPT is designed to provide services to meet the needs of chronically mentally ill residents of nursing homes. Specifically, the project provides staff trained to work with the…

Development of the Student Product Assessment Form to evaluate formally the products of students in gifted and talented education programs is described. Results from content validation procedures, reliability tests, scoring, and interrater agreement indicate that the assessment tool is both reliable and valid. (Author/JDD)

The Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children's Health Evaluation System (BEACHES) codes direct observations of children's dietary and physical activity behaviors and associated environmental events, including physical location, antecedents, and consequences. The system's reliability and validity was assessed in a study of 42 children (ages…