Traditionally in England, exam results in General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSEs) (and before them O levels) and A levels have been reported as letter grades, with A (or A*) as the top grade, then B, C etc. The reforms gave the opportunity to revisit the arguments for different formats of reporting, and Cambridge Assessment contributed…

One common modification to the Angoff standard-setting method is to have panelists round their ratings to the nearest 0.05 or 0.10 instead of 0.01. Several reasons have been offered as to why it may make sense to have panelists round their ratings to the nearest 0.05 or 0.10. In this article, we examine one reason that has been suggested, which is…

As professors, we each have our own approach to grading which allows us to assess learning and provide useful feedback to our students, yet is not too onerous. This article explains one approach we have used that differs from standard grading scales we often hear about from our colleagues. Rather than being based on 100 points or 100% over the…

Rationale is presented for the derivation of a new measure of stressful life events for use with students [Negative Life Events Scale for Students (NLESS)]. Ten stressful life events questionnaires were reviewed, and the more than 600 items mentioned in these scales were culled based on the following criteria: (a) only long-term and unpleasant…

With a view to support instruction, formative and summative assessment and to provide model handwriting performance for students to compare their own performance, a Malayalam handwriting scale is developed. Data from 2640 school students belonging to Malappuram, Palakkad and Kozhikode districts, sampled by taking 240 students per each grade…

While academic interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in high school is critical because it is often a student's last chance to become ready for the academic demands of postsecondary education and careers. States across the country are implementing large-scale initiatives focused on delivering academic…

Recently, Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a study to connect the scale of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) Testing Program used for Minnesota's mathematics and reading assessments with NWEA's RIT (Rasch Unit) scale. Information from the state assessments was used in a study to establish performance-level scores on…

While literacy interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in grades 3-8 is critical because it is often the best chance for students identified with earlier reading deficiencies to become ready for the literacy demands of postsecondary education and careers. States in both the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)…

Let X be a statistical variable representing student ratings of University teaching. It is natural to assume for X an ordinal scale consisting of k categories (in ascending order of satisfaction). At first glance, student ratings can be summarized by a location index (such as the mode or the median of X) associated with a convenient measure of…

An attempt was made to develop a reliable measure of preadolescents' willingness to share information about themselves (self-disclosure). The completed instrument was used to study the effects of interviewer sex, subject's sex, and interviewer disclosure input on disclosure output in this age group. (Author/NH)

Results indicate that extremeness response sets at the two ends of the continuum differentially contribute to scale validity. (MS)

The basic objective and the concepts involved in planning an effective contemporary yearbook are examined. Yearbooks are rated on the design, layout, content coverage, and other considerations. An official C.S.P.A. Scorebook is included in the document. The booklet is divided into four principal sections. Section I, The Design of the Book, lists…

Procedures for computing content validity and consistency reliability coefficients and determining the statistical significance of these coefficients are described. Procedures employing the multinomial probability distribution for small samples and normal curve probability estimates for large samples, can be used where judgments are made on…

Seniors' writing skills were assessed in 1998 at a medium-sized public university. Blind scoring, a standard scoring guide, and trained graders were used. Curricular writing emphasis was assessed through a syllabus study, yielding a Curricular Emphasis Score. Controlling for entry-level skill in writing, Writing Score and Curricular Emphasis were…