Describes the development of the Prejudice Perception Assessment Scale, a brief scale composed of five vignettes aimed at assessing the extent to which participants perceive prejudice as the cause of negative outcomes in ambiguous situations. Results from studies with 66 and 109 African Americans distinguish stigma vulnerability from mistrust of…

A set of conditions is presented for the validity of inference for Item Response Theory (IRT) models applied to data collected from examinations that allow students to choose a subset of items. Common low-dimensional IRT models estimated by standard methods do not resolve the difficult problems posed by choice-based data. (SLD)

The Tower of London test (T. Shallice, 1982), a measure of executive function, was reconstructed to increase its reliability through revisions tested with successive samples of 50, 50, and 34 college students. Adjusting the item pool resulted in acceptable test-retest reliability. (SLD)

Used structural equations modeling to test the competing values framework (CVF) formulated by R. E. Quinn and colleagues and to refine a scale identifying the extent to which managers use the framework to evaluate organizational effectiveness. Results with 300 hospital managers and supervisors support the CVF, and the refined scale yields…

Developed a multi-item scale for measuring attitudes associated with purchasing nonprescription contraceptives using construct specification and item generation and confirmatory factor analysis. Demonstrated a high degree of invariance across samples of 81 female and 115 male adult consumers. (SLD)

Proposes a parametric approach that involves a modification of standard Item Response Theory models that explicitly accounts for the nesting of items within the same testlets and that can be applied to multiple-choice sections comprising a mixture of independent items and testlets. (Author/SLD)

Discusses the need for a van Hiele test without limitations. Presents the background and main characteristics of a procedure to select items in designing three linked tests on polygons and other related concepts. Contains 15 references. (ASK)

Inconsistent item-pair Variable Response Inconsistency (VRIN) and True Response Inconsistency (TRIN) scales were developed for the Jesness Inventory using 500 male and female delinquents to detect random and acquiescent sets. Specificities above 0.90 showed sensitivities up to 0.89 for VRIN and 0.85 and 0.62 for TRIN. Predictive power and overall…

The articles in this issue, written from the perspectives of academics, practitioners, and publishers, show that examining the consequences of assessment is an important, large, and difficult task. Collaborative action by assessment developers, users, and the educational measurement community is needed if progress is to be made. (SLD)

Examined the assumption that matching difficulty levels of test items with an examinee's ability makes a test more efficient and challenged this assumption through a class of one-parameter item response theory models. Found the validity of the fundamental assumption to be closely related to the van Zwet tail ordering of symmetric distributions (W.…

Investigates whether the use of computer algebra systems could provide a significant advantage to students taking standard university entrance calculus examinations. Indicates that supercalculators would probably provide a significant advantage, particularly for lower-achieving students. Demonstrates that it is possible to write questions in which…

This article examines the statistical correction for attenuation and the controversies surrounding the procedure. The logic of the double and single correction formulas is discussed, and misapplications and misinterpretations of the correction are presented. (SLD)

Presents a rationale for the development of the Task-Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale and studies that have investigated its psychometric attributes. Describes it as a tool for identifying career areas in which individuals see themselves as strong and areas in which self-perception indicates lower self-efficacy beliefs. (SK)

Describes an analytic method for aiding in the generation of subscores that characterize the deep structure of tests and derives a procedure for estimating scores for those scales that are more statistically stable than subscores composed solely of items contained on that scale. Used data from a Praxis administration (9,278 examinees) to show the…

Proposes a methodology and describes a test battery that synthesizes the psychometric strengths of maximal performance tests and the engagingness of typical-performance tests. Results with 31 adults show that the test measures the same abilities tapped by conventional cognitive tests but is viewed by examinees as less stressful, more interesting,…