Explores the relationship between measurement theory and practice, considering five broad categories of: (1) models, assumptions, and terminology; (2) reliability; (3) validity; (4) scaling; and (5) setting performance standards. It must be recognized that measurement is not an end in itself. (SLD)

This article uses a question-and-answer format to describe the major categories of technical information usually presented in technical manuals for tests used by speech/language clinicians, including logical evidence of validity, empirical evidence of validity, types of reliability estimates, and practical issues in applying standardization data…

Techniques for establishing the reliability and validity of student writing assessment are presented. Raters scored collections of elementary students' narrative writing with holistic scores from two rubrics (one established and one new, performance-based rubric). The new rubric proved reliable and valid, though correlational patterns were not…

Discusses the reliability and validity of different measures of lexical richness in various language data research and computer simulations, and examines the behavior of these measures in spontaneous speech data of first language and second language children learning Dutch, aged 4 to 7, compared with their lexical abilities as measured by tests.…

Background: Likert-type scales are increasingly being used among people with intellectual disability (ID). These scales offer an efficient method for capturing a wide range of variance in self-reported attitudes and behaviours. This review is an attempt to evaluate the reliability and validity of Likert-type scales in people with ID. Methods:…

Researchers sometimes need a statistical test of the hypothesis that two values of Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient are equal. The situation may involve scores from two different measures administered to independent random samples or from the same measure administered to random samples from two different populations. Feldt derived a test…

Background: The ComFor (Forerunners in Communication) is an instrument to explore underlying competence for augmentative communication. More specifically, it measures perception and sense-making of non-transient forms of communication at the levels of presentation and representation. The target group consists primarily of individuals with autism…

Developed and tested a 20-item measure of work-family interface with child care providers. Confirmed five factors: general overload, conflict of family to work, spillover of family to work, spillover of work to family, and conflict of work to family. Regression lines for low, medium, and high levels of work-family interface indicated that high…

The authors examined aspects of reliability and validity of the Goode-nough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test (DAP; D. B. Harris, 1963). The participants were 115 seven- to nine-year-old students attending regular or special education schools. Three judges, with a modest degree of training similar to that found among practicing clinicians, rated the…

In low-stakes testing, the motivation levels of examinees are often a matter of concern to test givers because a lack of examinee effort represents a direct threat to the validity of the test data. This study investigated the use of response time to assess the amount of examinee effort received by individual test items. In 2 studies, it was found…

This study considered middle school mathematics teachers use of rubrics to score non-traditional tasks. A group of eighth-grade teachers attended a two-day workshop where they evaluated assessment tasks and discussed the use of an associated scoring rubric. Scored samples of student work submitted by the teachers indicated that they had difficulty…

"Background": There are very few formal language assessments aimed at the very severely neurologically impaired individual. These individuals often have multiple deficits on top of their communication impairment that demand a novel approach to assessment. The authors set out to devise a tool (PASWORD) to enable professionals in this field to…

Reliability and validity of the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) was investigated to determine if this instrument is appropriate for use with Hispanic college students. The sample (28 males, 177 females) consisted of 101 participants who identified as Anglo and 104 who identified as Hispanic (6 did not identify their ethnicity).…

The author explored the underlying dimensions and construct validity of the Bullying Situations Identification Instrument (BSI; Hazler, Miller, Carney, & Green, 2001) using exploratory factor analyses. Three dimensions of bullying severity were found using 251 school professionals as participants. The three factors that emerged from analyses were…

This article reports on the initial validation of the Fatherhood Scale (FS), a 64-item instrument designed to measure the type of relationship a male adult had with his father while growing up. The FS was validated using a convenience sample of 311 males. The assessment packet contained a demographic form, the Conflict Tactics Scale (2),…