The effectiveness of a social skills training workshop was assessed by comparing the rated competence of participants in an Interpersonal Skills Training Program to the rated competence of nonparticipants. Subjects' self-ratings were included. This comparison was operationalized through a pretest-posttest design with 12 experimental and 22 control…

The Communication Competency Assessment Instrument (CCAI) was developed as a college-level communication competence measure. However, because the listening portion of the CCAI requires individual testing and is not practical for large-scale testing situations, an additional multiple choice measure was developed. In a study conducted at Kent State…

Attitude measurement through Likert-type surveys usually provides no opportunity to assess the importance of the statements of the subjects. This study, involving 479 graduate and undergraduate students, examines the question of whether importance and agreement measures have different underlying dimensions, and examines the question of whether the…

The use of factor analysis in examining the dimensionality of language tests is questioned and found to be problematic because it has a number of weak points which make it possible to manipulate results. Some of these weaknesses occur in the examinee selection sample, test selection, and the methods of extraction and rotation chosen. The use of…

This document is a training module designed to familiarize practicing school psychologists and school psychology students with the field of criterion-referenced measurement and recent developments within the field. The introduction gives reasons for the need for criterion-referenced testing as opposed to norm-referenced tests which include legal…

The primary purpose of this study was to devise a valid and reliable scale to assess the teaching concerns of early childhood students at various levels in their teacher training experiences. A total of 167 concerns, generated by 104 teacher trainees, their trainers, and an extensive review of the literature, were classified according to Katz's…

Specific recommendations are made concerning the circumstances under which the benefits of out-of-level testing outweigh the problems associated with it. Topics explored are: various methods for deciding when a set of test scores is invalid and the utility of these methods for local evaluators, the accuracy of vertical scaling, and the usefulness…

An empirical comparison of the validity of three Likert-type attitude scales measuring fourth to sixth grade students' attitudes toward school integration was conducted. The content-parallel forms differed only in terms of item phrasing and were composed of either all positive, all negative or a mix of items. Different factor solutions underlying…

The translation and adaptation for a Spanish speaking college population of the Academic Self-Concept Scale (ASCS) developed by Reynolds et al. (1980) was studied to report the initial validation results. A total of 485 students in five different colleges in Puerto Rico responded to items in this scale. In addition, information on the academic…

Sixty high school juniors and seniors participated in an experiment testing the effects of learning strategies on performance. The experiment was run in two identical sessions except for the type of test administered. Information on classifying six types of sailboats was presented through slides and an oral explanation. Subjects were then given a…

Clinical psychologists have traditionally shared the results of psychological tests with other professionals but have withheld this information from their clients. Thus, clients have been encouraged to rely on experts without taking an active part in their treatment. To determine whether college students could validate the accuracy of their own…

Because item order and salience may affect the findings of social science research, a study was conducted to determine the effect of topic salience on subject response to different item orders. In the study, 10 high salience self-esteem items were presented with 10 low salience items concerning product labels in three versions. In the first…

A model was developed positing four factors as having a determinant influence on the desire of Mexicans for future economic relationships between their country and the United States. The factors, previously identified as occupying a central position in intercultural communication, are perceptions of shared interests, threats, homophily, and…

This teacher's edition of training materials on bilingual program planning, implementation, and evaluation focuses on testing instruments. The guide is part of a series directed at bilingual educators and intended for use in institutions of higher education and inservice teacher education programs. Training objectives, a pretest and posttest, and…

The College Board's Spanish Listening-Reading Test, designed to measure student ability and knowledge, is required of all students with previous knowledge of Spanish, however acquired, who have no college credit in Spanish and who intend to enroll in University of Texas, Austin, Spanish course. With satisfactory performance on the test, eligible…