Examines whether some of the most common assessment tools used in foster care programs are capable of identifying young peoples' competencies, strengths, and weakness. Describes the limited role assessment presently plays in foster care and its potential as a policy tool to promote accountability and interest in the independent living skills of…

Used both process and outcome measures to investigate the counseling process with an undecided college student and an indecisive one. Results supported previous speculation about the differential utility of interventions for undecided and indecisive clients and suggest that the counselor-client relationship may be important to clients in career…

Discusses the income status and work experience and earnings history of recently retired black and Hispanic women. The income status of older women was closely related to their life experiences. Black women, although they worked the most, reported an income status inferior to that of other women. (RJM)

Analyzed answers of college freshmen who completed the Strong Interest Inventory and who were retested 12 years later. Results show that the presence or absence of well-defined vocational interest patterns among college freshmen bears little relationship to later vocational achievement (a career and annual earning) and to job and career…

Summarizes findings from a study that used multidimensional scaling to examine the inherent complexity of vocational aspirations as a measurement construct. Uncovered the perceptual dimensions underlying college students' expressions of vocational aspirations when these aspirations were distinguished as preferences and as expectations.…

Maintains that center directors can help teachers increase their professional competence by helping them examine their belief systems. Describes the use of an assessment tool designed to help teachers reflect on their role in the classroom and their attitudes and beliefs about children and parents. (SM)

A sampling of teachers (n=348) and principals (n=31) responded to a questionnaire designed to assess their beliefs about the effects of, experiences with, and impediments to calculator usage in elementary school mathematics. Results indicated that teachers expressed concern regarding negative effects of extensive calculator usage on mathematical…

Describes and examines three tests using an infant speech identification (ISI) procedure, in which English language environment infants, two- and six-year-old children, and adults were tested for their identification of sounds on a native (voice/voiceless bilabial stop) and a nonnative (prevoiced/voiced bilabial stop) speech continuum. (31…

Various theories of learning for the categories "count noun" and "mass noun" are compared. It is argued that children assign words to these categories on the basis of intuitions arising from perception that are relevant to Macnamara's (1986) definitions of the categories. (39 references) (GLR)

Describes early research examining the validity of the original Inventory of Learning Processes. Presents a revised version of the inventory with reliability and validity data. Discusses reflective and agentic processing as the two major routes to academic achievement. Concludes that the smooth flow of cognition depends on the student's…

Twenty-six adolescents with educable mental retardation were identified as good or poor attenders based on teachers' ratings on an attention scale and were administered an auditory vigilance test and Posner's physical and name identity task. Although the vigilance task did not discriminate between groups, the more demanding Posner's task did.…

This article discusses the development of an orientation and mobility screening measure suitable for use with children having severe visual impairments (and possibly additional impairments) from birth through five years of age. Twenty instructors rated the measures as being useful. The two forms of the measure (for either ambulatory or…

Examines differences between tests and assessments, two incompatible models of education. Performance assessments make different demands on students than tests, with active application of knowledge and skill to problems. Assessment systems develop students' intellectual, social, and emotional abilities. They require a change in purpose and…

A set of instruments designed to measure generalizable interpersonal relations skills was validated with students in Illinois area vocational centers. The instruments developed possess a relatively high degree of content and face validity and moderate to high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. (JOW)

Thirty-six fifth graders considered "disruptive" were rated with the ACCEPTS Placement Test, Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment, and Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (self-report and teacher rating). The three teacher rating measures were strongly related, and students' self-ratings were…