Researchers have a long-standing interest in better understanding why some students avoid challenging academic course work at the risk of harming their academic standing, whereas others are willing to pursue these types of challenges. The Academic Hardiness Scale (AHS) was developed to better understand characteristics that may differentiate these…

This study explores the use of multiple measures to enhance the validity and reliability of inferences about school and district effectiveness. Using data from the state of Ohio, a framework for combining measures is applied to examine the individual and collective impact of multiple measures on both the federal AYP designations and state ratings.…

A 25-item self-report instrument was constructed to measure intrinsic motivation for academic work in the first-year student population. The instrument was based on a taxonomy of four types of intrinsic motivators: challenge, control, curiosity, and career outlook. The aim of this study was to provide reliability and validity evidence for the…

Finding, accessing, and determining the credibility of information are skills most people would deem necessary for the college educated person, if not the average citizen, to possess today. At the same time, educators, as well as constituents of educational institutions are asking for better and more sophisticated assessment instruments of…

This project examined some of the common constraints on reliable cognitive assessment for children over time. Repeated measures design (n = 133) was with younger (5 & 6 year old, n = 64) and older (7 & 8 year old, n = 69) children. Results showed that children's self-concepts moderated the test-retest reliability over extended intervals…

The reliability of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) has not been reported since ACTFL revised its speaking proficiency guidelines in 1999. Reliability data for assessments should be reported periodically to provide users with enough information to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the assessment. This study provided the most…

The aim of this study is to explore creativity in Spanish children during their early years and to explore differences regarding gender and age. We have used a sample of 285 children between five and seven years old. To measure their creativity we used the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). We have used the test of figured expression that…

The Math Essential Skills Screener--Upper Elementary Version (MESS-U) is part of a series of screening tests designed to help identify students ages 9-11 who are at risk for mathematics failure. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, item analysis, decision efficiency, convergent validity and factorial validity of the MESS-U were studied…

A multitask speaking measure consisting of both integrated and independent tasks is expected to be an important component of a new version of the TOEFL test. This study considered two critical issues concerning score dependability of the new speaking measure: How much would the score dependability be impacted by (1) combining scores on different…

The curriculum innovations in chemistry are often designed to address the important goals of improving student understanding and attitude, with assessment to determine the effects of these innovations. These analyses are psychometrically weak for several reasons, one reason being that the ability to look for the changes over time or for…

The purpose of this study is to develop an attitude scale toward Internet-based learning (IBL) and to investigate whether attitude levels of Turkish distance learners in an IBL environment differ according to their demographical characteristics (i.e. age, gender, marital status, parental status, employment status, grade point average (GPA).…

This study had two aims. The first was to validate further Sternberg's theory of mental self-government in a Chinese cultural setting. The second was to investigate the relationship between teaching styles and teachers' characteristics. Two hundred and three (64 males, 139 females) primary and secondary school teachers from Shanghai, mainland…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the Flemish Physical Activity Computerized Questionnaire (FPACQ) in employed/unemployed and retired people. The FPACQ was developed to assess detailed information on several dimensions of physical activity and sedentary behavior over a usual week. A…

Pragmatic proficiency has been incorporated in the EFL teaching and testing syllabi in China, but the corresponding tests still focus on linguistic competence. The gap between the teaching and testing is mainly due to the lack of generally accepted measures of communicative abilities such as pragmatic competence. This study developed a…

In tertiary institutions in Australia, and no doubt elsewhere, there is increasing pressure for accountability. No longer are academics assumed "a priori" to be responsible and capable of self management in teaching and assessing the subjects they run. Procedures are being dictated more from the "top down". Although academics…