This study investigated the reliability and construct validity of a peer nomination form used to identify 670 Hispanic students of outstanding talent from three southwestern school districts. Results indicated adequate reliability, and suggestions are offered for improving the instrument's validity. (DB)

Approaches to Studying Inventory was administered to 503 adult students, most returning to study after many years. Results indicate low internal consistency for seven subscales. Comparison with results of mathematics instructional unit suggests learning orientations are fundamental and identifiable in students returning to study after long…

The National Center for Student Aspirations developed the Student Aspirations Survey to address issues of student aspirations at the secondary level. The developed instrument, 98 items with 13 scales, was administered to 1,674 students from rural and suburban high schools. Results provide evidence of internal consistency, although the factor…

Psychometric support for the use of the Los Angeles Symptom Checklist (LASC), a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was provided by a study involving 639 high-risk adolescents. The LASC had appropriate levels of reliability and appeared to detect distress and PTSD as a function of trauma exposure. (SLD)

Finds that graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) experience eight interrelated types of communication concern (self, task, impact, role conflict, teaching, area knowledge, procedural knowledge, and time management). Shows that GTA variables of expected duties, prior teaching experience, newness to area, foreign or domestic birth, and age are likely…

This article examines assessment instruments, measurement considerations, and factors that affect understanding of a child's creativity. It compares strengths and weaknesses of methods of assessing creativity and lists more than 60 standardized assessment measures. Procedures for using formal and informal measures in the decision-making process…

This volume is the fourth in a series for college faculty and advanced graduate students, "Survival Skills for Scholars." It offers practical advice for developing, using, and grading classroom examinations, focusing on traditional multiple-choice and constructed-response tests rather than alternative assessments. (SLD)

This article proposes a new type of pronunciation test, based on the variability principle and language continuum paradigm developed by Tarone (1983, 1985). Trials with 80 elementary and 73 university students indicate that the test distinguishes between subjects with and without phonetic training and is generally reliable and valid. Contains 31…

This study examined test characteristics of the Pediatric Language Acquisition Screening Tool for Early Referral-Revised (PLASTER-R), a set of developmental questionnaires for children 3 to 60 months of age. The PLASTER-R was moderately to highly successful in identifying children within normal limits for language development. Test-retest…

Presents the American Educational Research Association's position on high-stakes educational testing, which stresses conditions essential to sound implementation of such testing, including: protection against high-stakes decisions based on single tests; adequate resources and opportunity to learn; validation for each intended use; alignment…

Reviews evidence on reliability and validity of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ); presents CBQ data on structure of temperament in childhood. Factor analyses indicate three broad dimensions of temperament: extroversion/surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control. This factor structure also appears in ratings of children in…

The usefulness of traditional concepts of validity and reliability, developed for large-scale assessments, for the classroom context is explored. Alternate frameworks that situate these constructs in teachers' work in classrooms are presented, and their use in an assessment course for preservice teachers is described. (SLD)

The Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale (DBRS) was designed to differentiate among the disruptive behavior disorders through administration to teachers and parents. Four studies are presented here to provide a technical analysis to fathers' responses to the DBRS-Parent Version. Reliability and construct and criterion-related validity of father…

A relatively new performance-based assessment, the DISCOVER process, is presented in this review. The theoretical framework of the assessment is explained, followed by a delineation of the assessment process, checklist characteristics and development, and the tasks in the five different activities. Findings on assessment validity and reliability…

An instrument was developed to assess needs of students with disabilities in regular classes and was used as the basis for providing funding support for 12,375 students. The three domains of the instrument, physical needs, learning needs, and social needs, had good construct and face validities and high score reliabilities. (Contains 10…