This Center for American Progress report examines whether states' adoption of standards-based policies predicts low-income students' NAEP achievement trends in fourth and eighth grade math and reading throughout the 2003-2013 decade. The report claims to analyze changes across five separate two-year intervals, but it only reports findings for…

There is growing interest in improving and assessing teachers' use of culturally responsive practices (CRP) in the classroom, yet relatively few research-based approaches exist to address these measurement gaps. This article presents findings on the psychometric properties of a newly developed classroom observation measure of CRP, called the CARES…

The General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry Knowledge Assessment (GOB-CKA) is a multiple-choice instrument designed to assess students' understanding of the chemistry topics deemed important to clinical nursing practice. This manuscript describes the development process of the individual items along with a psychometric evaluation of the…

The Effective Behavior Support Self-Assessment Survey (SAS; Sugai, Horner, & Todd, 2003) is designed to measure perceived Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) implementation and identify priorities for improvement. Despite its longevity, little published research exists documenting its reliability or validity for these purposes.…

There is a need to understand how environmental characteristics of a school influence the effectiveness of prevention efforts. Although researchers have discussed the importance of conducting needs assessments before implementing interventions, few of these types of assessments focus on the relational aspect. Furthermore, few assessments have the…

We propose three interlinked ways that theory helps researchers build causal claims from ethnographic research. First, theory guides the casing and re-casing of a topic of study. Second, theoretical work helps craft a clear causal question via the construction of a contrast space of the topic of investigation. Third, the researcher uses theory to…

Validity is a key concept in qualitative educational research. Yet, it is often not addressed in methodological writing about dance. This essay explores validity in a postmodern world of diverse approaches to scholarship, by looking at the changing face of validity in educational qualitative research and at how new understandings of the concept…

Constructing ray diagrams to locate the image of an object formed by thin lenses and mirrors is a staple of many introductory physics courses at the high school and college levels, and has been the subject of some pedagogy-related articles. Our review of textbooks distributed in the United States suggests that the singular approach involves…

Whenever the purpose of measurement is to inform an inference about a student's achievement level, it is important that we be able to trust that the student's test score accurately reflects what that student knows and can do. Such trust requires the assumption that a student's test event is not unduly influenced by construct-irrelevant factors…

Purpose: Several novel techniques have been developed recently to assess the breadth of a speaker's vocabulary exhibited in a language sample. The specific aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the validity of the scores generated by different lexical diversity (LD) estimation techniques. Four techniques were explored: D, Maas,…

Background: Self-based achievement goals use one's own intrapersonal trajectory as a standard of evaluation, and this intrapersonal trajectory may be grounded in one's past (past-based goals) or one's future potential (potential-based goals). Potential-based goals have been overlooked in the literature to date. Aims: The primary aim of the present…

According to social cognitive theory, people are most likely to emulate the behaviors of admired models. Though potentially valuable to researchers and practitioners, this postulate remains untested, as there is no validated measure of admiration. To facilitate research on admiration, a 14-item measure was constructed and the resulting scores were…

Virtual social networks nowadays play a very important role in getting and receiving daily news. Therefore, it is necessary to know the extent and reasons for users to use this tool and compare it with other media. Therefore, it is essential to know the extent and reasons for users to utilize this tool and compare it with other media. This study…

Test validity can be jeopardized to the extent that test scores are contaminated by factors other than those intended by the test. Many method specific factors and examinees' personal characteristics can influence test performance. In this study the contribution of four construct-irrelevant factors, namely, exam anxiety, reading anxiety, ambiguity…

Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with significant mental health concerns, little is known about suicidality, particularly among youth. To address this critical gap in the literature, the current study examined the predictive validity of (1) demographics, (2) core autism symptoms, (3) cognitive abilities and adaptive behavior,…