Objective: This study describes the development and validation of a perceived social competence scale that social workers can easily use to assess children's and youth's social competence. Method: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on a calibration and a cross-validation sample of youth. Predictive validity was also…

The authors investigated the psychometric appropriateness of the Valuing/ Commitment to Education scale (A. M. Gloria, 1993), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (M. Rosenberg, 1965), and the Educational Self-Efficacy Scale (A. M. Gloria, 1993) for use with European American, Latina/o, and Native American college freshmen. Strong to moderate…

Data from Mexico City, Mexico (N = 978) and from Texas, USA (N = 932) were used to test the predictive validity of the teacher professional development component of the Will, Skill, Tool Model of Technology Integration in a cross-cultural context. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the model. Analyses of these data yielded…

Questionnaires often ask for estimates, and these estimates are given with different reliabilities. It is difficult to know the different reliabilities of single estimates and to take these into account in subsequent analyses. This paper contains a practical example to show that not taking the reliability of different responses into account can…

Develops a statistical test for the hypothesis that alpha'(1) =alpha'(2) when alpha'(1) is the Spearman-Brown extrapolated value of Cronbach's alpha reliability for test 1 and alpha'(2) is the unadjusted coefficient for test 2. The test is shown to exercise tight control of Type I error. (Author/SLD)

Derives equations for computing weights that maximize the reliability of a test with multiple parts using a congeneric model. Presents a direct derivation for the three-part case and a two-step derivation for the "n"-part case. Gives examples that show the computations and the usefulness of the equations. (SLD)

Outlines a correlation structures modeling approach to the study of stability in reliability of multiple, repeatedly administered measures and illustrates the method on data from a fluid intelligence study (P. Bates and others, 1986). The method is also applicable when examining relationships between model parameters across all variables.…

Demonstrates that two aspects of precision, reliability and information, also apply to the simple gain score. Reliability applies to a population of examinees, and information applies to a given examinee. (SLD)

The properties of internal consistency (alpha), classical reliability (rho), and congeneric reliability (omega) for a composite test with correlated item error are analytically investigated. Possible sources of correlated item error are contextual effects, item bundles, and item models that ignore additional attributes or higher-order attributes.…

The purpose of this explanatory single-case case study (Yin, 2003) was to investigate teachers' perceptions of a principal's leadership behavior associated with the integration of a one-to-one laptop program in a parochial secondary school. The sample included the school principal and teachers who have had at least one year of teaching experience…

Using interviews with district and school personnel and documents from state and district web sites in three districts in New York State, the study examines practices for identifying learning disabilities among students who are English language learners and the challenges that arise. Specifically, two research questions guided the project: (1)…

This report summarizes research findings and implementation practices for teacher and principal value-added models (VAMs), as a first step in the Team Pennsylvania Foundation's (Team PA) pilot project to inform the development of a full, statewide model evaluation system. We have selected 21 studies that represent key issues and findings in the…

This article presents a review of the "Process Assessment of the Learner-Second Edition" (PAL-II), an individual or group-administered instrument designed to assess the cognitive processes involved in academic tasks in kindergarten through sixth grade. The instrument allows the examiner to identify reasons for underachievement and…

Many history professors have been reluctant to authorize students to use Wikipedia in their classwork because they do not fully trust the open source encyclopedia. But as increasing numbers of scholars and teachers work with Wikipedia, its influence becomes undeniable. In this article, the author describes how Wikipedia works and how she made…

Background: Although structured interviews are assumed to be scientifically superior to checklists for measuring youth psychopathology, few studies have tested this hypothesis. Interviews place a much greater burden on respondents, making it critical to determine their added value when quantifying psychiatric symptoms. Methods: Confirmatory factor…