A "knowledge survey" and a formative evaluation process led to major changes in an instructor's course and teaching methods over a 5-year period. Design of the survey incorporated several innovations, including: a) using "confidence survey" rather than "knowledge survey" as the title; b) completing an instructional…

Assessing individuals' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills is a complex task. It requires careful consideration of the assessment purpose, rigor, practicality, burden, and ethics. Once you have considered these factors and have determined that you are, in fact, "Ready to Assess," you are ready to act and choose an…

Some brand names are used generically to describe an entire class of products that perform the same function. "Kleenex," "Xerox," "Thermos," and "Band-Aid" are good examples. The term "computerized adaptive testing" (CAT) is similar in that it is often applied uniformly across a diverse family of testing methods. Although the various members of…

Two tests intended to measure student achievement of the Common Core State Standards will face intense scrutiny, but the test makers say they will include performance assessments and other items that are not multiple-choice questions. Incorporating performance items on this tests will bring up issues over scoring, costs, and validity.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to report the initial analyses of relationships between various components of the learning patterns exhibited by a group of 1,572 post-secondary students in Hong Kong as operationalized via the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS), a quantitative instrument developed by Vermunt originally for the Dutch…

People with intellectual disabilities are exposed to a high number of adverse life events, and evidence supports a link between the experience of adverse life events and trauma. Interventions for trauma have been found to be efficacious if case recognition can be facilitated. However to date there are no psychometrically validated measures of…

This article presents initial findings from a study examining "First Sound Fluency" (FSF), which is a brief measure of early phonemic awareness (PA) skills. Students in prekindergarten and kindergarten (preK and K) were assessed three times (fall, winter, and spring) over one school year, which resulted in multiple reliability and…

Here we wished to determine how the sub-components of Working Memory (Phonological-Loop and Central Executive) influence children's arithmetical development. Specifically, we aimed at distinguishing between Working Memory inhibition and updating processes within the Central Executive, and the domain-specificity (words and numbers) of both…

In large-scale assessments, it usually does not occur that every item of the applicable item pool is administered to every examinee. Within item response theory (IRT), in particular the Rasch model (1960), this is not really a problem because item calibration works nevertheless. The different test booklets only need to be conceptualized according…

The authors investigated counselors' perspectives on using the Career Style Interview (CSI) with clients who had career concerns. Participants were a purposive sample of 34 counselors who had been trained in and who had used the CSI with clients. The findings indicated that the counselors viewed the CSI as a helpful and positive career counseling…

This article presents the author's commentary on "Updating the Duplex Design for Test-Based Accountability in the Twenty-First Century," in which Isaac I. Bejar and E. Aurora Graf propose the application of a test design--the duplex design (which was proposed in 1988 by Bock and Mislevy) for application in current accountability assessments.…

The foregoing articles constitute what I consider a comprehensive and clear description of the redesign process of a major assessment. The articles serve to illustrate the problems that will need to be addressed by large-scale assessments in the twenty-first century. Primary among them is how to organize the development of such assessments to meet…

Research methods teaching in psychology is pivotal in preparing students for the transition from student as learner to independent practitioner. We took an action research approach to re-design, implement and evaluate a module guiding students through a programmatic and pragmatic research cycle. These revisions allow students to experience how…

According to prevailing theory and anecdotal evidence, the congruence between institutional attributes and students' needs, interests, and preferences plays a key role in promoting college satisfaction and retention. However, this assertion has received little direct empirical attention, and the few available studies appear to have some key…

The purposes of this study were to develop and validate an instrument for assessing elementary students' nature of science (NOS) views and to explain the elementary school students' NOS views, in terms of varying grade levels and gender. The sample included 782 students enrolled in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Exploratory factor analysis…