This volume examines the assessment of higher order thinking skills from the perspectives of applied cognitive psychology and measurement theory. The volume considers a variety of higher order thinking skills, including problem solving, critical thinking, argumentation, decision making, creativity, metacognition, and self-regulation. Fourteen…

Test score validity takes center stage in the debate over the use of high school exit exams. Scant literature addresses the amount of conditional standard error of measurement (CSEM) present in individual student results on high school exit exams. The purpose of this study is to fill a void in the literature and add a national review of the CSEM,…

This investigation intends to assess the effectiveness of a lexical recognition test (Meara & Buxton, 1987) as a placement tool that distinguishes among levels of two groups of students: Spanish heritage language learners (HLL) and second language learners (SLL). Three hundred and thirty university students from four different levels completed a…

Several studies show that teachers make use of grading practices to affect students' effort and achievement. Generally linearity is assumed in the grading equation, while it is everyone's experience that grading practices are frequently non-linear. Representing grading practices as linear can be misleading both from a descriptive and a…

The purpose of this study was to determine if significant changes have occurred in the instructional placement and state assessment participation rates of special education students in the state of Texas since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Data analyzed included the instructional placement data for the years of 2002…

"This Is Only a Test" helps teachers plan a year of instruction that takes testing into account while staying focused on a curriculum that encourages students to love and understand mathematics. Transform teachers' and students' feelings toward standardized tests from panic and anxiety to control and confidence. This book's proven strategies help…

(Purpose) This literature review discusses the prevalence of bias against minorities in all aspects of selection for gifted and talented services. (Findings) Topics addressed in this paper include: (1) progression of the definition of giftedness; (2) minority bias in gifted identification and referrals by school personnel; (3) discriminatory…

Background: Developmental language disorder is a heterogeneous diagnostic category. Little research has compared the long-term outcomes of children with different subtypes of language impairment. Aims: To determine whether the pattern of language impairment in childhood related to language and literacy outcomes in adulthood. Methods & Procedures:…

The "problem" of overweight and obesity among children and youth has received a tremendous amount of attention by government agencies, public health officials and within popular presses. The issue has been dubbed everything from a national epidemic to a global health crisis. Social policy solutions to the problem of overweight and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the distributed presentation of different versions of a question would produce better performance on a new version of the question than distributed presentation of the same version of the question. A total of 48 four question sets of five alternative multiple-choice questions were presented…

In this article we focus on two specific cases illustrating how similar issues have been addressed differently. Flanders, a federal state of Belgium, and the Netherlands share Dutch as an official language, yet remarkable differences in assessment traditions and policy development exist between them. These differences are most obvious with regard…

Mean gain scores for cognitive ability tests between two sessions in a selection setting are now a robust finding, yet not fully understood. Many authors do not attribute such gain scores to an increase in the target abilities. Our approach consists of testing a longitudinal SEM model suitable to this view. We propose to model the scores' changes…

There has been a significant history of research on spatial ability and visualization improvement and related curriculum content presented by members of the Engineering Design Graphics Division over the past decade. Recently, interest in this topic has again been heightened thanks to the work of several division members on research such as the…

Research on children's counterproductive test behavior supports a three-factor model for behaviors: inattentiveness, avoidance, and uncooperative mood. In this study, test behaviors measured by the Guide to the Assessment of Test Session Behaviors (GATSB) are rated on a sample of 110 Hispanic Spanish-speaking children included in the Wechsler…

This article presents a review of three chapters in "Part II, Section E: Internationalizing Curriculum" of "The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction" (F. M. Connelly, M. F. He, J. I. Phillion, Eds.; Sage Publications, 2008). These chapters ["Indigenous Resistance and Renewal: From Colonizing Practices to…