To determine trends in reporting test reliability, 88 articles addressing 188 instruments in 1980, 81 articles covering 205 instruments in 1985, and 67 articles assessing 195 instruments in 1990 in the "Journal of Counseling Psychology" were reviewed. Articles were examined for the way in which reliability was discussed and reported, and…

The relationship between levels of reliability and the power of two bias and differential item functioning (DIF) detection methods is examined. Both methods, the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure of P. W. Holland and D. T. Thayer (1988) and the Simultaneous Item Bias (SIB) procedure of R. Shealy and W. Stout (1991), use examinees' raw scores as a…

Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) affiliates were surveyed regarding standardized and informal assessment devices they currently used and their frequency of use and effectiveness. A literature review focused on assessment tools and their limitations. The survey was sent to 39 LVA affiliates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and…

A preliminary study is reported of the use of new multifaceted Rasch measurement mechanisms for investigating rater characteristics in language testing. Ratings from four judges of scripts from 50 candidates taking the International English Language Testing System test, a test of English for Academic Purposes, are analyzed. The analysis…

The Quest program offers a comprehensive test and questionnaire analysis environment by providing a data analyst (a computer program) with access to the most recent developments in Rasch measurement theory, as well as a range of traditional analysis procedures. This manual helps the user use Quest to construct and validate variables based on…

Although mastery motivation appears to predict school success, individual assessment of mastery motivation is too time consuming and limits the application of this research. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ). The study focused on the validity of the measure for Head Start parents,…

This 1-year project identified several goals to increase the awareness of chemical abuse among older women, older adults, and disabled people. The goals included: develop an assessment instrument; identify chemical health service providers; develop a process to coordinate outreach and case-finding; develop a guide for chemical health service…

This study investigates the Computer Attitude Scale (CAS) in terms of reliability, factorial validity, and fit to a unidimensional model. The sample for this study consisted of 265 teachers from 20 schools and school districts in one state who attended evening and weekend classes that emphasized teachers teaching teachers about classroom…

This report describes the development, construction, and validation of the Preliminary Chinese Proficiency Test (Pre-CPT), a standardized, nationally-normed test of listening and reading comprehension for beginning-level native English-speaking learners of Chinese as a second language. The Pre-CPT was designed as a lower-level version of the…

This paper explores the comparability of item calibrations for three types of items: (1) text only; (2) text with photographs; and (3) text plus graphics when items are presented on written tests and computerized adaptive tests. Data are from five different medical technology certification examinations administered nationwide in 1993. The Rasch…

Psychometric information was determined for two scales commonly used in early intervention programs and research, the Family Support Scale (FSS) (C. J. Dunst and others, 1984) and the Family Resource Scale (FRS) (C. J. Dunst and H. E. Leet, 1985). These questionnaires measure the perceptions of support for families with children with disabilities…

Little research has focused on children's loneliness or on the relationships between children's loneliness and depression. Children are typically labeled as lonely by the external behaviors they may or may not exhibit, rather than by their perceptions of their social relationships. This study examined the Children's Loneliness Questionnaire (CLQ)…

An objective measure of Erikson's ego-identity construct is being developed. The total scale includes seven relatively independent subscales designed to reflect the residuals (part conflicts) of Erikson's psychosocial stages of development. An initial item pool of 194 items has been reduced to 113 items by means of judgemental and statistical…

This study, conducted at six southern universities, analyzed the validity and reliability of a researcher developed instrument designed to evaluate educational software in secondary mathematics. The instrument called the Instrument for Software Evaluation for Educators uses measurement scales, presents a summary section of the evaluation, and…

As one phase of an extensive research project, normative data on the anatomical doll play of 209 nonreferred 2- through 5-year-old children were collected which revealed extreme, non-normative responses among some 4- and 5-year-olds. Later, a follow-up study was conducted to investigate the consistency of non-normative behavior over time and to…