This practicum addressed the need to provide training and experiences for school psychologists serving preschool children and their families. The practicum involved preparing and presenting inservice training to special education cooperative preschool assessment teams. Inservice training sessions covered: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and…

A project was conducted to design an alternative assessment tool for use with adult learners traditionally identified as reading below fifth-grade level. This assessment allows for the creation of a goal-oriented Individual Education Plan that is personalized to the learner's needs and educational goals. The approach, analogous to the art…

This book chapter outlines a number of key characteristics crucial to the integrity, utility, and efficiency of a behavioral assessment instrument for community living skills of people with developmental disabilities. In addition to basic psychometric considerations, the paper suggests that the functions of a behavioral assessment instrument could…

This manual provides an overview and instructions for the application of vocational assessment to secondary special needs students, especially in Illinois. The manual is organized in six sections. The introductory section describes the provisions of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act in regard to student assessment and includes…

To fulfill a mandate of the Tennessee State Legislature, the extent to which the Tennessee Career Ladder System (CLS) is valid for making inferences about the professional competence of teachers was investigated. Evidence of the extent to which the content of the evaluation procedures reflects sound theory, empirical findings, and best practices,…

Many studies of the reasons people select teaching as a career have used quantitative instruments featuring a checklist of reasons one might enter teaching to which subjects respond using a checklist or a continuously scaled Likert format. In this study, results of an effort to establish the construct validity of such an instrument are reported. A…

Issues surrounding accurate assessment of depression in children have received much attention. However, the stability of scores from depression measures has generally been estimated using only classical test score theory, rather than the more powerful generalizability theory. The dependability of scores from the Children's Depression Inventory…

The fourth phase of a longitudinal study focusing on the cognitive and language development of children in a primary-grade Spanish immersion program (SIP) is reported. Subjects were the remaining 13 members of an SIP cohort beginning in 1987, 15 members of a standard program comparison classroom, 18 members of another class in the 1987 SIP cohort,…

The Science Teacher Inventory of Need (STIN) is an 83-item instrument which assesses science teachers' perceptions of their professional needs. Items on the STIN are organized under seven categories: (1) specifying objectives for science instruction; (2) diagnosing and evaluating learners for science instruction; (3) planning science instruction;…

A Computer Anxiety Index (CAIN), which uses a six-point Likert scale of agreement, was developed to measure the trait of computer anxiety and to be predictive of the development of the state of computer anxiety. Computer anxiety was defined as the irrational fear or apprehension felt by an individual when using computers or when considering the…

A study examined the nature of functional literacy among 671 Moroccan children, aged 11-14, and the relationship of functional and classroom literacy to background factors and school experience. Students were assessed on a series of household literacy tasks sampling knowledge of spatial and monetary print conventions, specialized vocabulary, and…

The General Academic Assessment (GAA), an instrument designed to measure students' knowledge of the liberal arts, was developed by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges for use by community colleges to informing decisions about curriculum modifications and estimating institutional outcomes. The instrument, which includes 29 demographic…

Included in the Pennsylvania State University teacher education program for secondary school teachers is a requirement that students demonstrate ability to read, write, and speak effectively in professional situations. The basic assessment procedure in these skills is conducted before the student teaching experience. The assessment includes three…

A project devised a self-instructional counseling/advising system for adults that relates activities in Adult Basic Education programs with activities in Occupational Development Centers. To identify client and student needs in the areas of occupational choice and job readiness skills, the Your Employment Search (YES) inventory was developed in…

The findings presented here are part of a longitudinal, prospective study investigating factors associated with infants, parents, interactions, and environments which account for developmental outcomes in a sample of high-risk children. In a group of 96 children observed in preschool at age 4 1/2, 31 compliant and 22 extremely noncompliant…