Objective: This article reports the validation of the Caregiver Role Identity Scale, designed to measure the prominence of helping professionals' identity as personal and professional caregivers. The authors developed the measure to test its application to burnout, depression, and professional impairment among social workers. Method: Data from a…

This study examines the factorial validity, factorial invariance across gender, and construct validity of a Swedish version of the Self-Presentation in Exercise Questionnaire (SPEQ; Conroy, Motl, & Hall, 2000). The a priori two-factor 14-item, 11-item, and 9-item models fail to reach acceptable levels of fit in a calibration sample. A modified…

Purpose: Measures are lacking that address the challenges that people think they face in their roles as elderly care receivers. However, the development of a sense of efficacy in this role by mentally competent care receivers is critical to successful partnerships between caregivers and care receivers. The purpose of this article is to report the…

The content validation method was used to develop a scale for measuring attitudes toward and knowledge about the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) for college students. The developed instrument, the Attitudes toward AIDS Scale (ATAS) consisted of a knowledge scale and an attitudes scale, each with 25 items chosen by a pool of AIDS…

The agreement between the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Golden Rule Insurance Company of Illinois is interpreted as setting the general principles on which items must be selected to be included in a licensure test. These principles put a limit to the difficulty level of any item, and they also limit the size of the difference in…

Emerging areas and critical problems related to computer-based testing are identified. Topics covered include adaptive testing; calibration; item selection; multidimensional items; uses of information processing theory; relation to cognitive psychology; and tests of short-term and spatial memory, perceptual speed and accuracy, and movement…

Methods for setting cutoff scores based on criterion performance, normative comparison, and absolute judgment were compared for scores on a multiple-choice psychology examination for 121 undergraduates and 251 undergraduates as a comparison group. All methods fell within the standard error of measurement. Implications of differences for decision…

An instrument developed in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess HIV/AIDS knowledge and four attitudinal dimensions (Peer Pressure, Abstinence, Drug Use, and Threat of HIV Infection) and an instrument developed by Basen-Engquist et al. (1999) to measure abstinence and condom use were translated,…

The authors of this volume's stimulus papers have taken on the challenge of developing measures of teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). This task involves multiple decisions and considerations, including: (1) How does one specify the body of knowledge being assessed? What warrants are offered for those choices?; (2) How does one…

The study compared two promising item response theory (IRT) item-selection methods, optimal and content-optimal, with two non-IRT item selection methods, random and classical, for use in fixed-length certification exams. The four methods were used to construct 20-item exams from a pool of approximately 250 items taken from a 1985 certification…

The College Outcome Measures Program (COMP) and the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) examinations were evaluated as measures of the effectiveness of the general education program of the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). The criteria used to evaluate these examinations focused on their construct validity. The data were…

Four major problem areas inhibit the standardized assessment of critical thinking (CT): (1) content validity; (2) construct validity; (3) technical jargon; and (4) background knowledge. Practical examples of framing multiple-choice items for assessment are suggested. In the area of content validity, new agreement about the definition of CT now…

Analyzed and validated revised versions of the 2000 Word Level and the University Word Level of Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test, which can be administered for course planning and placement in language programs. Japanese high school and university students (n=496) completed four forms of the 2000 Word Test, and 464 completed four forms of the…

The study set out to assess the needs of Nigerian science teachers, which the teachers believe are militating against their desired productivity. It seeks to find out the special needs and wants of science teachers in trying to discharge their duties well, and to find out the underlying relationship among these specials needs and wants. Six…

There are indications that the new technologies could have radical implications for conventional teaching and learning processes. It notes that, in reconfiguring how teachers and learners gain access to knowledge and information, the new technologies challenge conventional conceptions of both teaching and learning materials, and teaching and…