Purpose: The study attempts to examine the viewpoints of those involved in evaluating the performance of section heads in Kuwait secondary schools; mainly section heads themselves, supervisors and principals. It sets out to determine the strength and weaknesses in the performance evaluation form designed for section heads.…

The purpose of this article is to review substantive and methodological advances in interventive research. Three substantive advances are discussed: (a) the growing use of a risk factor perspective, (b) the emergence of practice-relevant micro social theories, and (c) the increased acceptance of structured treatment protocols and manual. In…

In this study, predictive classification accuracy was used to select those tasks from a kindergarten screening battery that best identified children who, three years later, were classified as educable mentally handicapped or as having a specific learning disability. A subset of measures enabled correct classification of 91% of the children in…

Content analysis scales apply rigorous measurement to verbal communications and make possible the quantification of text in counseling research. The limitations of the Origin and Pawn Scales (M. T. Westbrook & L. L. Viney, 1980), the Positive Affect Scale (M. T. Westbrook, 1976), the Content Analysis Scales of Psychosocial Maturity (CASPM; L.…

There are usually many testing activities going on in a school, with different tests serving different purposes, thus organization and planning are key in creating an efficient system in assessing the most important educational objectives. In the ideal case, an assessment system will be able to inform on student learning, instruction and…

The goal of this research project was to investigate the use of dynamic assessment to increase equity, fairness, and accuracy in the testing of abilities and achievement. Dynamic tests have been found to reveal developing expertise in underrepresented minorities around the world that is not revealed by conventional static tests. The…

The AP Course Audit utilizes a criterion-based professional judgment method of analysis within a nested multi-step review process. The overall goal of the methodology is to yield a final judgment on each syllabus that is ultimately valid. While reviewer consistency is an important consideration, the most important goal is to reach a final judgment…

This article addresses a pervasive need in the area of videoconference-supported distance language learning: task design. On the basis of Chapelle's (2001) criteria for CALL task appropriateness, this article proposes a set of criteria for evaluating videoconferencing-based tasks which examine such aspects of a task as practicality,…

In early intervention, researchers often are interested in interpretation aids that can help determine the relative importance of variables when multiple regression models are used, and that facilitate deeper insight into prediction dynamics. Commonality analysis is one approach for helping researchers understand the contributions independent or…

This article describes the development and validation of a listening questionnaire designed to assess second language (L2) listeners' metacognitive awareness and perceived use of strategies while listening to oral texts. The process of instrument development and validation is described, along with a review of the relevant literature related to…

DETECT, the acronym for Dimensionality Evaluation To Enumerate Contributing Traits, is an innovative and relatively new nonparametric dimensionality assessment procedure used to identify mutually exclusive, dimensionally homogeneous clusters of items using a genetic algorithm ( Zhang & Stout, 1999). Because the clusters of items are mutually…

Although clinical judgment is often used in assessment and treatment planning, rarely has research examined its reliability, validity, or impact in practice settings. This study tailored the frequency of home visits in a prevention program for aggressive-disruptive children (n = 410; 56% minority) on the basis of 2 kinds of clinical judgment:…

One of the most important effect sizes used in meta-analysis is the standardized mean difference (SMD). In this article, the conditions under which SMD effect sizes based on different measures of the same construct are directly comparable are investigated. The results show that SMD effect sizes from different measures of the same construct are…

Background: Those engaged in research might argue that we are involved in a process of explaining the world to others and to ourselves. The way in which we go about that process differs. The kind of questions we are concerned about answering will determine the approach we use, the information we gather and how we analyse the data. Some research…

In recent years, peer assessment has been increasingly used as an alternative method of assessment in classrooms. The study described in this paper employed a 13-item Likert-scale instrument to evaluate participants' attitudes towards both general (seven items) and online peer assessment (six items). A sample of 280 pre-service teachers and 108…