Data from 2,068 Indiana inmates who took the General Educational Development (GED) practice and final tests between 1988-2000 were analyzed. All six practice tests correlated with performance on the GED test. Most accurate were the FF battery (for writing skills), CC (for social studies), BB (for science), EE (for interpreting literature and…

Emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are common in children, and forecasting their prevalence in schools is of interest to both academic researchers and local authorities. Percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is one measure often used for this purpose. The article presents the first independent validation of a simple…

This study examined the factors that influence consumer satisfaction with mobile telephone use in Malaysia. The validity of the study's constructs, criterion, and content was confirmed. Construct validity was verified through the factor analysis with a total variance of 73.72 percent explained by all six independent factors. Content validity was…

The goals of our study were to determine the predictive value and usability of an audience response system (ARS) as a knowledge assessment tool in an undergraduate medical curriculum. Over a three year period (2006-2008), data were collected from first year didactic blocks in Genetics/Histology and Anatomy/Radiology (n = 42-50 per class). During…

Purpose: Two studies are presented providing evidence indicating the diagnostic and predictive validity of the American version of "The Renfrew Bus Story" (J. Cowley & C. Glasgow, 1994). Method: Thirty-two children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 32 children with typical language development participated in the first…

This article presents findings of two studies, one conducted with middle school students (n = 500) in a rural setting and a second conducted with middle school students (n = 528) in an urban setting, of the reliability and validity of the "Student Risk Screening Scale" (SRSS; Drummond, 1994). Results revealed high internal consistency, test-retest…

Body composition measurements vary greatly in degree of measurement difficulty and accuracy. Hydrostatic weighing, chemical dilution or their equivalents were the accepted "gold" standards for assessing fat mass. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) is fast replacing these techniques as the preferred standard. However, these direct measurement…

Reviewer evaluations and recommendations for 853 manuscript submissions, over a span of 4 years, are analyzed for evidence of particularistic bias, reviewer agreement, and predictive validity for forecasting a published manuscript's citation impact. Attributes of the submitters, their affiliated institutions, and the reviewers have little…

This article discusses the issues and implications of high stakes tests on English language learners (ELLs). As ELLs are being included in all high stakes assessments tied to accountability efforts (e.g., No Child Left Behind), it is crucial that issues related to the tests be critically evaluated relative to their use. In this case, academic…

The "Ohio Youth Problems, Functioning, and Satisfaction Scales" (Ohio Scales) are a recently developed set of measures designed to be a brief, practical assessment of changes in behavior over time in children and adolescents. The authors explored the convergent validity of the Ohio Scales by examining the relationship between the scales and…

Admissions committees and researchers around the globe have used diligence and imagination to develop and implement various screening measures with the ultimate goal of predicting future clinical and professional performance. What works for predicting future job performance in the human resources world and in most of the academic world may not,…

Measurement of social stressors among Hispanic women is a growing and important area of study, particularly in terms of understanding explanatory mechanisms for health disparities. This study involved adaptation of the Hispanic Stress Inventory and the Latin American Stress Inventory to create a measure of social stressors specifically for both…

The use of microworlds (MWs), or complex dynamic systems, in educational testing and personnel selection is hampered by systematic measurement errors because these new and innovative item formats are not adequately controlled for their difficulty. This empirical study introduces a way to operationalize an MW's difficulty and demonstrates the…

This article begins with a rationale for and review of parallel measures of self-efficacy (confidence) and interests for basic dimensions of vocational activity. Recent development of and research on the Expanded Skills Confidence Inventory, Campbell Interest and Skills Survey, Kuder Skills Assessment, and Inventory of Work-Relevant Abilities are…

Faced with limited resources, schools require tools that increase the accuracy and efficiency of functional behavioral assessment. Yarbrough and Carr (2000) provided evidence that informant confidence ratings of the likelihood of problem behavior in specific situations offered a promising tool for predicting the accuracy of function-based…