According to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), "psychological flexibility" refers to an individual's ability to maintain mindful awareness of his or her thoughts and emotions in the present moment while behaving according to his or her personal values. Psychological inflexibility could set the foundation for emotional distress and…

'Grit' has been identified as an important predictor of success in a number of academic and non-academic domains (Duckworth, A. L., C. Peterson, M. D. Matthews, and D. R. Kelly. 2007. "Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals." "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" 92: 1087-1101.…

This study is an examination of the incremental validity of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) broad clusters from the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ III COG) for predicting scores on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ III ACH). The participants were children and adolescents, ages 6-18 (n = 4,722), drawn from the WJ…

Universal screening is the first mechanism by which students are identified as at risk of failure in the context of multitiered systems of supports. This study examined the validity and diagnostic accuracy of a reading computer-adaptive test as a screener to identify state achievement test performance for third through fifth graders (N = 1,696).…

This retrospective study evaluates early semester predictors of whether or not community college students will successfully complete blended or hybrid courses. These predictors are available to faculty by the fourth week of the semester. Success is defined as receiving a grade of C- or higher. Failure is defined as a grade below a C- or a…

A quantitative survey, built around the theory of planned behavior, was used to investigate elementary teachers' attitudes, school norms, perceived behavioral control, and intent in both current and ideal teaching situations toward using gardens in their curriculum. With positive school norms and teachers who garden in their personal time, 77% of…

This report analyzes the psychometric properties of the revised school-level SEL implementation rubric and the SEL specialists' activity log.

Six cardinal leadership virtues based on Aristotelian and Confucian typology were advanced through this study by developing a measurement instrument and examining its predictive validity by studying the causal association with perceived leader happiness. Based on a sample of 183 school principals engaged in various types of schools, the results of…

To efficiently assess multiple psychological constructs and to minimize the burden on respondents, psychologists increasingly use shortened versions of existing tests. However, compared to the longer test, a shorter test version may have a substantial impact on the reliability and the validity of the test scores in psychological research and…

The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has prioritized efforts to support students' social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies, such as perseverance and social awareness. To measure students' SEL competencies and the school experiences that promote SEL competencies (school climate), DCPS began administering annual surveys to…

Human memory has been thoroughly studied and modeled in psychology, but mainly in laboratory setting under simplified conditions. For application in practical adaptive educational systems we need simple and robust models which can cope with aspects like varied prior knowledge or multiple-choice questions. We discuss and evaluate several models of…

Oral language skills are important to consider in school psychology practice, as they are directly tied to many areas of academic functioning. For example, research has demonstrated that oral language skills in early elementary school predict reading comprehension in later grades (Kendeou, van den Broek, White, & Lynch, 2009). With a…

We used two studies to evaluate, modify, and provide initial validation for a revised Academic Hardiness scale. First, 16 experts rated scale items for content validity and identified two problematic questions. Second, confirmatory factor analyses with 300 Grade 10 students (46% boys, age range 14-17) identified a 17-item version to be the best…

This paper has two objectives: (1) presenting recent advances in personality theory whereby personality traits are conceptualized within a framework that focuses on the dynamic interactions of behaviour, biology, context, and states, and (2) discussing the implications of these developments for measurement and medical selection. We start by…

This study determined the accuracy of "Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers" ("M-CHAT") in detecting toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders (DD) in community mother and child health clinics. We analysed 19,297 eligible toddlers (15-36 months) who had "M-CHAT" performed in…