Home literacy activities influence children's emergent literacy progress and readiness for reading instruction. To help parents fulfill this opportunity, we developed a new Emergent Literacy Screener (ELS) and conducted 2 studies of its psychometric properties with independent prekindergarten samples. For Study 1 (n = 812, M[subscript age] = 54.4…

It is common practice for K-12 schools to assess multilingual students' language proficiency to determine language support program placement. Because such programs can provide essential scaffolding, the policies guiding these assessments merit careful consideration. It is well accepted that quality assessments must be valid (representative of the…

Amidst the ethnic and linguistic diversity in adult English language classes, there is heightened importance to using culturally responsive teaching practices. However, there are limited quantitative examinations of this approach in adult learning environments. The purpose of this investigation was to describe patterns of culturally responsive…

The authors address the reliability of scores obtained on the summative performance assessments during the pilot year of our research. Contrary to classical test theory, we discussed the advantages of using generalizability theory for estimating reliability of scores for summative performance assessments. Generalizability theory was used as the…

The field interrater reliability of three assessment tools frequently used by mental health professionals when evaluating sex offenders' risk for reoffending--the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSOST-R) and the Static-99--was examined within the context of sexually violent predator…

The authors explore the possible relationship between student satisfaction with online learning and the theory of psychological contracts. The study incorporates latent trait models using the image analysis procedure and computation of Anderson and Rubin factors scores with contrasts for students who are satisfied, ambivalent, or dissatisfied with…

Due to the growing importance of the professional role of teachers, effective evaluation practices are essential to ensuring highly qualified educators. The problem addressed was how Volusia County School teachers in the state of Florida experienced the teacher evaluation process and how that impacted the effectiveness of instructional practices…

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is steadily increasing among the baby boom population. Among this population, there is a gap between knowledge and behavioral choices. HIV risk perception is multifaceted and shaped by different sociodemographic factors. Baby boomers' perception of risk and sociocognitive determinates that impact their decision…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of additional revenues for safe school programs and services on the incidences of violent behaviors in the educational environment of a rural and urban school retrieving data from the fourth and final calculation of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) for the 2001 to 2002, 2002 to…

Examination of infant vocalization patterns across interactive and noninteractive contexts may facilitate better understanding of early communication development. In the current study, with 24 infant-parent dyads, infant volubility increased significantly when parent interaction ceased (presenting a "still face," or SF) after a period of…

As state tests of student achievement are used for an increasingly wide array of high- and low-stakes purposes, evaluating their instructional sensitivity is essential. This article uses data from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Project to examine the instructional sensitivity of 4 states' mathematics and English…

The subject of this report is a pair of written, group-administered tests designed to measure the performance of grade 1 and grade 2 students at the beginning of the school year in the domain of number and operations. These tests build on previous versions field-tested in fall 2013 (Schoen, LaVenia, Bauduin, & Farina, 2016). Because the tests…

The authors examined the psychometric properties of the Counseling Competencies Scale (CCS; University of Central Florida Counselor Education Faculty, 2009), an instrument designed to assess trainee competencies as measured in their counseling skills, dispositions, and behaviors. There was strong internal consistency for the 4-factor model for…

We investigated relationships between students' perceptions of parental involvement in schooling, their Spanish classroom environment and student outcomes (attitudes and achievement). Modified Spanish versions of the What Is Happening In this Class?, Test of Spanish-Related Attitudes-L[subscript 1], a parental involvement questionnaire and a…

The author's community, which includes parents of the 62,000 students who attend schools in Volusia County, Florida, has been baffled over the conflicting nature of Florida's school grading system of A, B, C, D, F based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and the federal system of pass or fail. While many of the 80 schools in her…