Presents data from the development and testing of an instrument created to evaluate the oral health of nursing home residents by nursing personnel. Examination of 100 residents by dentists and 3 categories of trained nurses established statistically significant interrater reliability, suggesting that nursing staff can be taught to evaluate the…

This study compared fears and social anxiety in children with (n=57)and without (n=25) developmental disabilities, using self-ratings and parent ratings. Children without disabilities showed significantly higher consistency over time than children with disabilities. Correlations between parent and child ratings were fair to good. (DB)

A study tested the psychometric properties of the Stereotyped Behavior Scale, an empirically developed behavior rating scale for adolescents and adults with mental retardation. Forty-five adults with mental retardation and various rates of stereotypies participated. Results found the scale had high rates of reliability, validity, and interrater…

Reports on the design and development of the Parent Concerns Questionnaire, an instrument designed to obtain the views of mothers in general, and particularly depressed mothers, in families subject to child and family care intervention. Discusses the reliability and validity of the instrument. (JPB)

Describes five basic elements that need to be considered with every test: backwash; reliability, administrative concerns; validity; and ethics. These elements are discussed in relation to tests for students who are second language learners of English. (Author/VWL)

Describes development and testing of the Literacy Orientation Survey (LOS)--an instrument for assessing teachers' beliefs about literacy learning and classroom practices as related to constructivism. Finds while LOS has robust internal validity and reliability, questions remain about external validity of teachers' self-reports of their…

Study seeks to examine, for South African adolescents, the reliability of the Communities that Care Youth Survey of risk and protective factors for drug use and anti-social behavior, and the extent to which drug use can be predicted from community, family, school, and peer factors. Findings support use of the survey with slight revisions for South…

The Feelings about School (FAS) measure was used to examine factors associated with kindergartners' and first-graders' feelings about school. Findings provided support for the reliability and validity of the FAS for both groups. Students' feelings about school were associated with their academic skills, especially for first-graders. Relation of…

Revised the Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire for Australian university students. Tested the new Australian Quality of Student Experiences Scale on first-year students using a Rasch measurement model. Although 58 items were discarded, the final scale of 62 items had excellent psychometric properties. (EV)

This study investigated the stability of the four factors in the Quality of Life Questionnaire, an instrument often used in quality of life research for people with intellectual disabilities. Only three of the four factors were found to be stable, raising potential concern over the use of the measure in assessing service providers' effectiveness.…

This study obtained construct (factorial) validity, internal consistency reliability, and 1-year criterion coefficients for scores from the College Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Response Evaluation (CARE), an evaluation tool examining ADHD behaviors as reported by college students and their parents. Among the CARE variables,…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC-III) Intelligence Quotients (IQs) of 49 students (ages 7-16) referred for a three-year reevaluation were analyzed. Correlations of WISC-III IQs to WISC-III IQs three years previously were high for the Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs. Even so, IQs dropped a statistically significant…

Examined cross-informant concordance, temporal stability, and reliability of sociometrics in 84 preschoolers. Found that parallel forms of teacher and peer sociometrics measured overlapping and unique aspects of popularity. Teacher-measured popularity was highly stable over 8 weeks; peer-measured popularity showed lower stability. Both teacher and…

The Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire was administered to 540 U.S. and 1,026 Taiwanese students (1,461 completed). Structural equation modeling showed that the taxonomy of difficulties can be reliably measured for U.S. students, but not Taiwanese students, suggesting that cultural differences influence decision-making difficulties.…

When used appropriately, standardized assessments can assist education reform by tracking individual or group progress and achievement levels and indicating college readiness. Credibility and validity can be improved by preventing student exclusions, using multiple indicators, stressing year-to-year performance, monitoring consequences, and…