The Philosophies Held by Instructors of Lifelong-learners (PHIL) was developed to identify a respondent's preference for one of the major schools of philosophical thought: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, Existentialism, or Reconstructionism. Using the pool of items from an established instrument, its final form and content validity were determined…

As a result of the "No Child Left Behind Act," there is increased emphasis on assessment in P-12 schools today. School administrators are responsible for assessing student achievement, teacher and staff effectiveness, school climate, and graduates' perceptions of school programs. At the university level, organizations, such as the National Council…

The development and validation of the Spanish-English Verbatim Translation Exam (SEVTE) is described. The test is for use by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the selection of applicants for the positions of Language Specialist or Contract Linguist. The report is divided into eight sections. Section 1 describes the need for the test,…

Given the widespread interest in the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) School Leaders Licensure Assessment, this paper explores the implications of this type of assessment for preparation programs in educational administration. The paper examines the relationship of the six ISSLC standards to various accrediting practices as…

High school students (n=1,319) and military recruits (n=2,289) completed the Interest-Finder and the Strong Interest Inventory (SII). The Interest-Finder demonstrated the following: six-factor composition related to Holland's hexagon; substantial relationship to the SII; ability to predict certain high school course choices; and ability to predict…

Discussion of electronic learning focuses on outcomes, improving quality of assessment, and evaluation of electronic learning initiatives. Highlights include new directions in assessment, with examples from a variety of fields; blending assessment with learning; multiple roles for learning assessment; criteria for better assessment; and content…

Four studies on the psychometric properties of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), involving 682 adults and 1,592 college students, investigated factor structure and construct and content validities. Overall, results suggest that the CISS is a valid and reliable measure of basic coping styles. (SLD)

An information technology certification program was evaluated by 1,671 systems engineers using job analysis that rated task importance. Professional librarians (n=527) rated importance of their tasks in similar fashion. Results of scatter diagrams provided evidence to enhance training effectiveness by focusing on job tasks significantly related to…

A review of articles in Psychological Assessment reveals that many researchers develop instruments without the benefit of consultation with members of the target population. To the extent that researchers do consult the target population, most fail to bring consultation in early enough to inform the identification and specification of key…

This study examines the psychometric properties of an observer measure of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) for early elementary school classrooms, known as A Developmentally Appropriate Practices Template (ADAPT). Using a sample of 854-1511 first through third grade classrooms in 207-295 schools across 3 years, the study evaluates the…

To model behavior, scientists need to know how models behave. This means learning what other behaviors a model can produce besides the one generated by participants in an experiment. This is a difficult problem because of the complexity of psychological models (e.g., their many parameters) and because the behavioral precision of models (e.g.,…

In 1979, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) developed the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), an English proficiency test for people working in international environments, based on a request from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The Chauncey Group International, a subsidiary of ETS, currently…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to highlight the results of the online Delphi research project; in particular the procedures used to establish an online and innovative process of content validation and obtaining "rich" and descriptive information using the internet and current e-learning technologies. The online Delphi was proven to be an…

School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has been implemented in more than 4,000 schools as a means of addressing problem behavior in a systemic fashion. Preliminary outcomes (e.g., office discipline referrals, suspensions) indicate the effectiveness of SWPBS in decreasing school-wide behavior problems and creating a positive school climate.…

Validity is an integrated evaluative judgment of the degree to which empirical evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of interpretations and actions based on test scores or other modes of assessment. The principles of validity apply not just to interpretive and action inferences derived from test scores as…