The success of early intervention programs has in large part spurred increasing emphasis on identifying children with autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) at the earliest possible ages. National and international professional groups have called for early screening and diagnosis, yet the technology to…

This study compared traditional and multimedia-enhanced read-aloud vocabulary instruction and investigated whether the effects differed for English-language learners (ELLs) and non-English-language learners (non-ELLs). Results indicate that although there was no added benefit of multimedia-enhanced instruction for non-ELLs, there was a positive…

In educational research, characteristics of the learning environment (e.g., social climate, instructional quality, goal orientation) are often assessed via student reports, and their associations with outcome variables such as school achievement or student motivation then tested. However, studying the effects of the learning environment presents a…

In this study, the purpose was to determine whether there was concordance among raters in the assessment of the writing performance using analytic rubric; furthermore, factors affecting the assessment process were examined. The analytic rubric used in the study consists of three sections and ten properties: External structure (format, spelling and…

The aim of this paper was to validate the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), presenting evidence of its reliability and construct and criterion-related validity. A large Brazilian sample (2,180 participants), from five different populations (undergraduate and high school students, general population,…

Comparisons were made among various methods of estimating the reliability of pass-fail decisions based on mastery tests. The reliability indices that are considered are p, the proportion of agreements between two estimates, and kappa, the proportion of agreements corrected for chance. Estimates of these two indices were made on the basis of…

There are few existing or widely known measures of agreement applicable when data is nominal or categorical. Most such coefficients are applicable only when judges classify objects or subjects into a single category. A wider range of applications, including those where judges (1) place probabilities on subjects belonging to mutually exclusive and…

This paper brings together a variety of item-analysis techniques into a coherent system. The system is based on classical test theory, the theorems that can be derived from the equation, X = T + E. The system extends from techniques for analyzing parts of an item separately to techniques for relating items to total test score, to sub-scores, to…

Total circular triad scores (TCT) derived from the pair-comparison Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ) were used to study the relationship between inconsistency, and both internal consistency reliability and stability. Stability estimates (and Hoyt Coefficients) were computed for each of nine groups (retest internals from immediate retest to…

A major problem in the research concerning distributional and other properties of reliability coefficients has been the non-existence or inaccessibility of adequate test data for use in empirical verification of hypothetical conclusions. The purpose of this paper is to develop a technique for the simulation of test item scores through the use of…

Section 3 of Phase II of the Pennsylvania Plan is concerned with the adequacy of the educational quality assessment instruments. An overall discussion of reliability--content, criterion related, and construct--is presented. Reliability coefficients for the assessment inventories are provided and empirical studies of validity are described. (PR)

Procedures are described which were used to develop an instrument and scale to measure an individual's ability to detect and describe the immediate affective state of another. Data are presented indicating the scale's reliability and the extent of the scale's content, concurrent, and predictive validity. (Author)

Interviewed Israeli students to assess the Adult Attachment Interview's test-retest reliability and effects of the interviewers on the interview itself. Information about subjects' memory and intellectual abilities was obtained from external sources. Found a high degree of interrater and test-retest reliabilities, irrespective of interviewers.…

The Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant instrument was developed by means of pilot, exploratory, and validation studies. The validation study tested the generalizability of results for different cohorts, test versions, hospitals, and examiners. Seven stable functions were identified: motor development; scarf sign; popliteal angle;…

The third edition of the "Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination" (Goodglass, Kaplan, and Barresi) introduced standardized procedures for coding discourse samples elicited using the well known Cookie Theft illustration. To evaluate the reliability of this discourse coding procedure, a transcribed sample was coded by 14 novice examiners…