The development and validation of a brief scale of parental modernity in child rearing and educational attitudes and beliefs are reported. Three samples (A, B and C) of mothers and their children varying in number, race, socioeconomic status (SES), risk for educational failure, and, in one sample, age participated in the study. Various measures, including the Parent as Educator Interview, the Classroom Behavior Inventory (CBI) and subtests of the Test of Basic Experience (TOBE), the Weschler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT), were employed. Scales to measure modernity in child rearing and educational attitudes and belief were developed independently for samples A and B from scales of the Parent as Educator Interview. Several data analyses were conducted, including internal consistency and test-retest reliability estimates, a test of the relationship of scale results to parent SES (separately for white and black subjects), cross-sectional validity tests, and a test of the hypothesis that parent modernity competence than with their social and emotional adjustment. The scales were found to be highly reliable and findings showed significant positive correlations of education and income with parental modernity. Cross-validation data suggest that parental modernity is substantially and positively correlated with child intelligence. Correlations of A and B modernity scale scores for sample C subjects were significantly positive with several CBI academic competence scales, significantly negative with CBI dependency and distractibility scales, and insignificant for several CBI social and emotional behaviors. (The parent form of the modernity scale, titled the Child-rearing and Education Research Instrument, and a scoring form are appended.) (Author/RH)