Measuring values in sociological research sometimes involves the use of ranking data. A disadvantage of a ranking assignment is that the order in which the items are presented might influence the choice preferences of respondents regardless of the content being measured. The standard procedure to rule out such effects is to randomize the order of…

In this article, the authors provide an overview of empirically supported practices and techniques for monitoring and assessing teachers' use of effective behavior support practices. They focus on how teacher preparation programs, administrators, and supervising teachers provide pre-service teachers with helpful feedback on their teaching…

Chickering and Gamson's (1987) "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" offers extensively researched and validated tenets for best practices in higher education. After a review of the literature, twenty-eight evaluation instruments currently used to design and review online courses in higher education institutions…

The development of web surveys has been accompanied by the emergence of new scales, taking advantages of the visual and interactive features provided by the Internet like drop-down menus, sliders, drag-and-drop, or order-by-click scales. This article focuses on the order-by-click scales, studying the comparability of the data obtained for this…

In this research report, we present an empirical argument for the use of a contributory scoring approach for the 2-essay writing assessment of the analytical writing section of the "GRE"® test in which human and machine scores are combined for score creation at the task and section levels. The approach was designed to replace a currently…

This paper presents a framework for educators, administrators, and researchers to assess distinct facets of developmental education programs. The researchers review the literature on best practices in developmental education with regards to program cost, program structure, and student placement procedures. This paper also identifies seven model…

A valuable extension of the single-rating regression discontinuity design (RDD) is a multiple-rating RDD (MRRDD). To date, four main methods have been used to estimate average treatment effects at the multiple treatment frontiers of an MRRDD: the "surface" method, the "frontier" method, the "binding-score" method, and…

Process-Driven Math is a fully audio method of mathematics instruction and assessment that was created at Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama, to meet the needs of one particular student, Logan. He was blind, mobility impaired, and he could not speak above a whisper. Logan was not able to use traditional low vision tools like braille and…

This study proposes using Internet search data from search engines like Google to produce state-level metrics that are useful in social science research. Generally, state-level research relies on demographic statistics, official statistics produced by government agencies, or aggregated survey data. However, each of these data sources has serious…

Construct irrelevance (CI) and construct underrepresentation (CU) are 2 major threats to validity, yet they are rarely discussed within the counseling literature. This article provides information about the relevance of these threats to internal validity. An illustrative case example will be provided to assist counselors in understanding these…

Precision is a key facet of test development, with score reliability determined primarily according to the types of error one wants to approximate and demonstrate. This article identifies and discusses several primary forms of reliability estimation: internal consistency (i.e., split-half, KR-20, a), test-retest, alternate forms, interscorer, and…

Flexible learning options (FLOs) provide individualised learning pathways for disengaged young people with strong emphasis on inclusivity and wellbeing support. Amidst a rapid expansion of Australia's flexible learning sector, service providers are under increasing pressure to substantiate participant outcomes. This paper stems from a national…

The Learning Target Rating Scale (LTRS) is a measure designed to evaluate the quality of teacher-developed learning targets for embedded instruction for early learning. In the present study, we examined the measurement dependability of LTRS scores by conducting a generalizability study (G-study). We used a partially nested, three-facet model to…

Participatory Health Research is a collective term adopted globally for participatory action research in a health context. As an approach to research, it challenges current ways used within the health sciences to measure research impact as research, learning and action are integrated throughout the research process and dependent on context and…

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been proposed as a promising approach for the classification of students into different levels of a psychological attribute hierarchy. Unfortunately, because such classifications typically rely upon internally produced item response patterns that have not been externally validated, the instability of ANN…