A 20-year study to verify Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development through a new research design, the Standard Issue Scoring System, is reported. Kohlberg theorizes that an individual progresses through several stages in attaining moral judgment. As children grow older, they are able to integrate diverse points of view on a moral conflict.…

A test battery termed "Assessment of Reading and Language Maturity" (ALARM) contains 15 subtests designed to cover the major and minor elements involved in assessing and promoting progress toward reading-language-thinking and social-emotional maturity. Although still undergoing development, ALARM has been administered to and partially…

An examination of the applicability of self-assessment as a tool for student placement in foreign language instruction focused on: (1) the ability of first-year university students to assess their performance level in the second language through a self-assessment questionnaire; (2) the quality of the questionnaire itself and its potential for…

Four studies of the reliability and validity of needs assessment instruments developed by the Taylor Public Schools, Michigan, are described. The studies focused on the stability of student scores, classification stability, content validity, and concurrent validity. Consisting of separate tests for kindergarten, first and second grade, the…

Previous research has studied the effects of different methods of item option weighting on the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity of achievement tests. Increases in reliability are generally found, but with mixed results for validity. Several methods of producing option weights, (i.e., Guttman internal and external weights and…

This study seeks evidence for the validity of the concept of egocentrism in children. Three standard egocentrism tests are intercorrelated to determine the degree to which they appear to be measuring a single construct (convergent validity); whether the three tasks intercorrelate more than they do with a theoretically unrelated task (discriminant…

A computerized adaptive testing model was assessed in a technical training system. The model, a modification of Lord's flexilevel paradigm, consisted of: the sequencing of test items in a difficulty hierarchy, adaptive entry of students into the test at a difficulty level appropriate to their predicted score, and systematic movement of students…

It is often the case that intelligence tests do not measure what they purport to measure, although it is commonly assumed that every test with a different name is a test of different skills, and that tests with the same name test the same skills. Spearman attempted to study the relationship between tests that supposedly measured different mental…

The Emory Word Analysis Skill Inventory (EWASI) was developed to diagnose individual word analysis skill abnormalities exhibited by students enrolled in private tutoring in the Emory University (Georgia) Reading Center. In the EWASI, 13 subscales contain three broad categories--consonants, vowels, and word structure. The goal, however, is to…

Since middle schools vary in their degree of implementation of middle school practices, this research was designed to compare the job satisfaction of middle school teachers with the degree of implementation of these practices. Six teachers from each of Colorado's 50 schools with the name "middle school" were randomly selected to serve as…

Based on the evaluation of 24 faculty development programs in the United States and other scholarly activities, the benefits of systematic planning and evaluation of faculty development programs are considered. In addition, a set of field tested instruments for planning and evaluation and case studies of institutional programs are presented, and…

The study investigated the reliability and validity of professional groups using the Modified Component Disability Instrument to identify/evaluate learning disabled (LD) adolescents. Ss included 166 LD teachers, speech clinicians, remedial reading teachers, school psychologists, school principals, and school counselors. Calculations were made for…

A study examined the construct validity of six vocational achievement tests used in the Ohio Vocational Achievement Testing Program. (Subject areas covered in the tests were agricultural mechanics, carpentry, diesel mechanics, distributive education for food services personnel, fabric services, and home economics/food service.) In order to…

A study examined the feasibility, reliability, and validity of two instruments designed to assess the degree to which postsecondary vocational students possessed those generalizable skills that are believed to be functionally relevant to success in a vocational program. The instruments, a student self-rating and a teacher rating form, contained 81…

PEOPLE (Pruebas de Expresion Oral y Percepcion de la Lengua Espanol) was developed as a test to help distinguish between a language difference and a language deficit in non English proficient (NEP) and limited English proficient (LEP) elementary Hispanic students. PEOPLE was developed, pilot tested in 14 school districts in Los Angeles County with…