Discusses three areas essential in reporting on school improvement plans: process, which refers to the legitimacy of procedures used to assess the improvement plan; equity, pertaining to methods that show both low- and high-achieving students benefiting from the plan; and reporting, which refers to clarity of presentation. (JDI)

Presents support for content validity of a school social work intern effectiveness survey. Analyses suggest that the social work intern effectiveness survey can be used to assess and guide university training programs. An example of the practical implications of the instrument is provided along with a brief summary of the results and the…

This article presents a methodology for examining the content and nature of item parcels as indicators of a conceptually defined latent construct. An essential component of this methodology is the 2-facet measurement model, which includes items and parcels as facets of construct indicators. The 2-facet model tests assumptions required for…

This paper analyzes the reliability and validity of a questionnaire designed by Archbold, Lutman, Gregory, O'Neil, and Nikolpoulos (2002) for the assessment of pediatric cochlear implantation. Parents of 61 youngsters (age range 5 to 16 years), who had the implant for at least 3 years, responded to the questionnaire and to an interview. The alpha…

These researchers analyzed the perceptions of parents of students determined to be at-risk about their involvement with their children. Parents (n = 229), predominantly Hispanic, were surveyed from elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in a district in South Texas near the Texas-Mexico border. Quantitative data obtained from the…

Raising a child with disabilities impacts the ability of parents to participate in life situations. This paper describes the development of a new instrument, Life Participation for Parents, to measure outcomes of pediatric therapy on parental participation. Items were reviewed by six occupational therapists with experience in pediatrics and…

The "Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale" (MATIES) was developed to effectively measure affective, cognitive and behavioural aspects of attitudes, within the realm of inclusive education that includes physical, social and curricular inclusion. Models within Item Response Theory and Classical Test Theory were used…

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the state of the research on testing accommodations, as well as to identify promising areas of research to further clarify and enhance understanding of current and emerging issues. The research described encompasses empirical studies of score comparability and validity studies, as well as…

This paper describes the development of the CAOS test, designed to measure students' conceptual understanding of important statistical ideas, across three years of revision and testing, content validation, and reliability analysis. Results are reported from a large scale class testing and item responses are compared from pretest to posttest in…

This study investigated the relationship between the scales used for the NDSA assessments and the RIT scales used to report performance on Northwest Evaluation Association tests. The study estimated the changes in reading and mathematics RIT score equivalents for the NDSA performance levels in those subjects. Test records for more than 9,000…

A multicultural awareness scale completed by 72 nursing students obtained a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of .91. An expert panel analyzed content validity and the revised scale was completed by 118 students. Factor analysis supported the measure's construct validity. (Contains 30 references.) (SK)

Reports on an international project's progress in revising the English Language Testing Service test, jointly produced and administered by the British Council and the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate. The rationale for the project's using new approaches to content validation of the revised test is explored. (Author/CB)

This study evaluated the content, concurrent, and construct validity of the Leadership Skills Inventory (LSI), a measure designed to help students analyze the strength of their leadership skills. Results indicated satisfactory content, concurrent, and construct validity, although factor analysis revealed that the LSI contained only one factor, not…

The ElemenOE is a Likert-scaled observation checklist developed in this study to measure 5 personality characteristics in elementary school children, with predictive validity for identifying giftedness. The characteristics, named "overexcitabilities," are described within the context of Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. Five…

The present study is an investigation of complex sentence structures produced by school-age children in ordinary 100-utterance language samples. A total of 15 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 15 of their classmates with typical language (TL) were the participants. Each child's conversational sample was coded for several types…