Eighteen students (K-11th grade) with emotional/behavioral disorders who were at-risk for change of placement to more restrictive settings participated. Construct validity of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) was assessed with a multifunction-multimethod matrix that showed excellent convergent and divergent agreement with combined FBA methods…

Purpose: The Scales of Cognitive and Communicative Ability for Neurorehabilitation (SCCAN; L. Milman & A. Holland, 2007) was developed in the hospital setting to address changes in assessment practice. The SCCAN was designed to provide an overview of impairment and activity limitations across 8 cognitive scales (Speech Comprehension, Oral…

In this chapter, the authors focus on issues of validity in measuring student learning as a prospective indicator of institutional effectiveness. Other chapters in this volume include reference to specific approaches to measuring student learning for accountability purposes, such as through standardized tests, authentic samples of student work,…

The objective of this exploratory study of teacher beliefs was twofold: first, to determine whether the construct of academic optimism could be defined and measured as an individual teacher characteristic as it has been at the collective school level, and second, to identify sets of teacher beliefs and practices that were good predictors of…

The distinction between automatic processes and controlled processes is a central organizational theme across areas of psychology. However, this dichotomy conceals important differences among qualitatively different processes that independently contribute to ongoing behavior. The Quadruple process model is a multinomial model that provides…

The purpose of this project was to develop a bidimensional measure of mindfulness to assess its two key components: present-moment awareness and acceptance. The development and psychometric validation of the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale is described, and data are reported from expert raters, two nonclinical samples (n = 204 and 559), and three…

Evaluators often make key decisions about what content to include when designing new scales. However, without clear conceptual grounding, there is a risk these decisions may compromise the scale's validity. Techniques such as concept mapping are available to evaluators for the specification of conceptual frameworks, but have not been used as a…

Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007) have proposed a framework that seemingly deems construct validity evidence irrelevant to supporting educational test meaning. The author of this article agrees with Lissitz and Samuelsen that internal evidence establishes test meaning, but she argues that construct validity need not be removed from the validity sphere.…

This article presents the authors' response to the discussants of their article "A Suggested Change in Terminology and Emphasis Regarding Validity and Education" (this issue)--Susan E. Embretson, Joanna S. Gorin, Robert J. Mislevy, Pamela A. Moss, and Stephen G. Sireci. Their response is limited to a brief summarization of their position…

This investigation was conducted to explore the reliability and validity of scores on the French Canadian version of the Self-Report Coping Scale (SRCS; D. L. Causey & E. F. Dubow, 1992) and that of a short form of the SRCS. Evidence provides initial support for construct validity by replication of the factor structure and correlations with…

This measurement study examined the construct validity of the retell component of the Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (Texas Education Agency, University of Houston, & The University of Texas System, 2008a) within a confirmatory factor analysis framework. The role of retell, provided after a one-minute oral reading fluency measure, was…

The purpose of this survey based study was to examine whether the characteristics (i.e., flexibility and cohesion) of expatriate families in a multinational corporation as measured by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale can predict cross-cultural adjustment of the expatriate (individual level of analysis) and his/her family…

Background: Interpersonal staff behaviour is one of the instigating factors associated with challenging behaviour in clients with intellectual disabilities (ID). There are several studies focusing on the influence of intrapersonal staff characteristics--such as beliefs, attributions and emotional reactions--on staff behaviour. Little is known,…

Learning strategies and affective factors could have a profound impact on student standardized mathematics performance. This study investigated gender differences in affective factors, learning strategies, and preferred learning situations, and how these variables affect math achievement of 15 year olds in the United States and Hong Kong on the…

This study aimed at investigating the psychometric properties of two inventories for the measurement of learning style preferences in a Greek sample: Kolb's (1985) Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) by Felder & Soloman (1999). The inventories were administered in a total of 340 Greek university undergraduate…