Describes five basic elements that need to be considered with every test: backwash; reliability, administrative concerns; validity; and ethics. These elements are discussed in relation to tests for students who are second language learners of English. (Author/VWL)

Describes development and testing of the Literacy Orientation Survey (LOS)--an instrument for assessing teachers' beliefs about literacy learning and classroom practices as related to constructivism. Finds while LOS has robust internal validity and reliability, questions remain about external validity of teachers' self-reports of their…

The Feelings about School (FAS) measure was used to examine factors associated with kindergartners' and first-graders' feelings about school. Findings provided support for the reliability and validity of the FAS for both groups. Students' feelings about school were associated with their academic skills, especially for first-graders. Relation of…

Revised the Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire for Australian university students. Tested the new Australian Quality of Student Experiences Scale on first-year students using a Rasch measurement model. Although 58 items were discarded, the final scale of 62 items had excellent psychometric properties. (EV)

This study obtained construct (factorial) validity, internal consistency reliability, and 1-year criterion coefficients for scores from the College Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Response Evaluation (CARE), an evaluation tool examining ADHD behaviors as reported by college students and their parents. Among the CARE variables,…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC-III) Intelligence Quotients (IQs) of 49 students (ages 7-16) referred for a three-year reevaluation were analyzed. Correlations of WISC-III IQs to WISC-III IQs three years previously were high for the Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs. Even so, IQs dropped a statistically significant…

The Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire was administered to 540 U.S. and 1,026 Taiwanese students (1,461 completed). Structural equation modeling showed that the taxonomy of difficulties can be reliably measured for U.S. students, but not Taiwanese students, suggesting that cultural differences influence decision-making difficulties.…

Four independent samples of children were used to study the reliability and validity of the Writing Essential Skill Screener, a measure designed to screen primary grade children at risk for writing difficulties. Among findings was that the measure is comprised of two dimensions, writing and name writing, that the factor structure did not fit the…

This paper describes a new measure, the Worry Questionnaire for Nursing Home Residents (WQNHR), designed to assess the frequency of specific worries. It was administered to 67 residents. Psychometric evaluation showed an average item-to-total correlation of 0.20 (range = 0.15 to 0.58), an internal consistency estimate of 0.79, and a test-retest…

Systematic assessment of anger among people with developmental disabilities has been lacking, especially for hospital inpatients. Reliability and validity of anger self-report psychometric scales were investigated with 129 male patients, mostly forensic. Anger prevalence and its relationship to demographic, cognitive, and personality variables and…

This research note provides a rationale for the use of gender-specific subscales, rather than a single global measurement device, to assess respondents' differential attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. It then evaluates the reliability and validity of equivalent forms of the Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale (ATLG) (Herek, 1994) when…

Can computers help with one of the most persistent challenges of large classes: the accurate and efficient measurement of student learning?

This study documents the initial reliability and validity of the Child Suicide Risk Assessment (CSRA) for children under the age of 13. The revised CSRA retained 18 of 20 original items based on item-specific psychometric data from 140 pre-adolescents in out-of-home treatment programs. The CSRA demonstrated adequate internal consistency (alpha =…

Criterion-referenced (Livingston) and norm-referenced (Gilmer-Feldt) techniques were used to measure the internal consistency reliability of Folsteins Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) on a large sample (N = 418) of elderly medical patients. Two administration and scoring variants of the MMSE Attention and Calculation section (Serial 7s only…

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…