This study of 121 10th-grade students investigated the criterion-related validity of 2 potential curriculum-based measurements, reading from text and identifying vocabulary meaning, for predicting student performance on content-area study tasks. Correlational and multiple regression techniques found the vocabulary measure to be the stronger…

Examines changing population demographics in the United States, including shifting student demographic projections, and discusses student-testing issues resulting from these changes. The article reviews the historical context of testing ethnic students, testing special-education students, regulatory issues surrounding the testing of ethnic pupils,…

A careful review of research suggests that the problem of sexual assault has been magnified and the data misinterpreted, in part because the issue of sexual violence against women has become enmeshed in politics. The current trend in sexual-violence research is to redefine it according to the ideological preferences of advocates. (SLD)

A 6-year-old child's oral and spelled utterances were compared over a 3-month period as he was trained to use facilitated communication (FC). The child's language with FC was significantly better than his oral language. Evidence that he was authoring his own messages included his eventual ability to type messages without physical support.…

A measure for school principal perceived burnout was developed and validated through responses of 821 Israeli principals. Under factor analysis, three factors emerged: (1) emotional, physical, and cognitive exhaustion; (2) aloofness; and (3) deprecation of teachers, students, and parents. (SLD)

The Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire is introduced as a measure of emotional expressiveness. Four studies involving 499 mothers and 362 fathers provided evidence of good convergent, discriminant, and construct validity for the instrument and a preliminary short form. Factor analyses support a two-factor solution across the studies.…

The Parent Perception Inventory (PPI), used to measure children's perceptions of parental behavior, was administered to children in 12 physically abusive families, 15 child problem behavior families, and 16 nondistressed families. All families were single parent, mother-headed, and impoverished. Data from the present sample were compared with data…

The role of assessment in science education is explored, focusing on summative assessment in British public certificate examinations. Examples of test items are presented to illustrate difficulties in making valid and reliable assessments, and issues with implications for formative assessment are discussed. (SLD)

This paper argues that using intelligence as an aptitude benchmark in defining reading disability conceals unsupported assumptions about educational potential and makes it difficult to differentiate the cognitive characteristics of dyslexic children from those of other poor readers. The use of a more educationally relevant aptitude measure such as…

The use of a performance-based assessment of senior medical students' clinical skills utilizing standardized patients was evaluated, with 6,804 student-patient encounters involving 405 students over 6 years. Results provide evidence for test security, content validity, construct validity, reliability, and test ability to discriminate a wide range…

This survey of 40 northeast state universities and colleges found that criteria used by admission personnel to determine the eligibility of undergraduate applicants with learning disabilities are similar to those employed for applicants without learning disabilities. Criteria differ significantly among institutions, and admission personnel do not…

A total of 102 university English majors were administered 4 different language tests to form a General Language Proficiency measure against which the C-test was evaluated. Results confirmed its reliability and validity and also provided data on text difficulty/appropriateness, word structure, content, and different scoring methods. (13…

Mother and peer assessments of preschoolers' behavior were compared to teachers' responses on a preschool behavior questionnaire with three components. The disruptive component was highly correlated with peer assessments, and moderately correlated with mother assessments; the prosocial and anxious components were moderately correlated with mother…

This study of 640 twins with reading disability and 436 controls (mean age 12) examined external validity of the distinction between specific reading retardation and reading backwardness, in 3 domains: genetic etiology, sex ratio and clinical correlates, and neuropsychological profiles. There was no evidence of differential genetic etiology of the…

Whether the external validity of the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) was moderated by age, sex, or race was studied using 1,333 children and adolescents referred for mental health services. Race and sex generally did not moderate the relation of PIC scales to symptom checklists. Some relationships were age modified. (SLD)