Author Randall Langston feels that mentoring should never be viewed as a chore but rather a dynamic and transformational opportunity to impact a student's life. Often, the legacy that some people leave is the professional relationships they have forged with others. In fact, it's not unusual to hear keynote and other conference presentations in…

In this article, Hartley notes the difficulties of using questionnaires to assess the efficiency of new instructional methods and highlights nine issues that researchers must consider. Hartley continues the discussion about the use of questionnaires and suggests that psychology teachers can help improve the teaching of psychology by drawing…

In the discussion of mean square difference (MSD) and standard error of measurement (SEM), Barchard (2012) concluded that the MSD between 2 sets of test scores is greater than 2(SEM)[superscript 2] and SEM underestimates the score difference between 2 tests when the 2 tests are not parallel. This conclusion has limitations for 2 reasons. First,…

Fear is an interesting word. Especially, when contemplating the contemporary collegiate registrar. The registrar profession seemed to diverge over the last decade. There appears now to be two categories. One is a benevolent person who honors traditional registrar standards, yet does little to grow the profession. The second is an ambassador of…

Claims that portfolios can be reliably rated in a large-scale assessment situation. Shares the experiences of writing program administrators concerning portfolio assessment. Outlines practical methods of gaining reasonable reliability in portfolio scoring. (RS)

Questions the observed correlation between job experts and naive raters using the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ); and conducts a replication of the Smith and Hakel study (1979) with college students (N=39). Concluded that PAQ ratings from job experts and college students are not equivalent and therefore are not interchangeable. (LLL)

Competence is seen as a cause of effective performance, not a synonym for it. Teaching and assessing competence may be different than teaching and assessing academic skills. Competence can be measured, but its measurement depends first on its definition. (Author/MLW)

Innacurate sample data and uncertain estimates are defined as obstacles to assessing the suicide rate among college students. A standardization of research and reporting services is recommended. (JMF)

A college faculty member who has graded Advanced Placement exam essays on U.S. government and politics, taken mostly by high school juniors and seniors, suggests that high school teachers and college faculty who assess the essays are not the best qualified persons to do so and that despite efforts to ensure consistency, the resulting scores are…

A faculty consultant to the Educational Testing Service for advanced placement (AP) test reading in U.S. government and politics responds to an article criticizing essay evaluation methods and criteria, finding in it a fundamental misunderstanding of the AP reading process and explaining why the essays are subject to less scrutiny for style,…

Notes that problems of measurement in educational research are often addressed by using the terms validity and reliability. Discusses the meaning given to these terms and how they relate to the aims of the measurement process in educational research. (RKM)

Presents a method for evaluating student teachers' oral presentations as the final showcase stage of their portfolios. Describes assessment criteria for content, organization, accompanying materials, relationship to state standards, and delivery, as well as ways of ensuring interobserver reliability. (SK)

Drawing on several specific incidents of media misinterpretation or imbalanced reporting of information about higher education, particularly concerning faculty, the author examines how journalists can interpret and influence the balance of power on campuses. Issues discussed include presidential searches, campus employment patterns, and faculty…

Holistic scoring enables the evaluation of writing skills based on general impressions of content and style. An experiment in an accounting class shows how it can be applied successfully with a high degree of reliability. (SK)

Details a social constructionist reconfiguration of metaphor analysis (SCMA) that is advanced as a powerful, reflexive analytic tool for discourse-centered social constructionist investigations. Applies SCMA to a body of organizational socialization discourse and illuminates a set of prevailing assumptions that both enable and disable…