A new technique for evaluating postsecondary education courses and improve instruction uses directed group discussion based on formative evaluation of the course concerned. It draws on Delphi technique and nominal group process but is more easily administered and produces higher user satisfaction. Its reliability has been confirmed in educational…

The stability of scores on 2 types of performance assessments, an observed hands-on investigation and a notebook surrogate, was investigated for 29 sixth graders on 2 occasions. Results indicate that student performance and procedures changed and that generalizability across occasions was moderate. Implications for assessment are discussed. (SLD)

Reports on a project that investigated, by means of interviews, the information needs, information-gathering strategies, and information use of 10 urban and 9 rural community groups in Australia. Highlights include accuracy and reliability as criteria by all groups, rural groups' perceptions of being disadvantaged, and the importance of public…

Reports initial construct validity and reliability of a new measure of the organizational/supervisory climate of schools. The new measure contained six subscales validated by using three recognized indices of school effectiveness: school productivity, organizational effectiveness, and school holding power. Results support the OSCI's validity and…

Validity of the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) is tested by considering relations among the PGIS, ways of growing, gender-role orientation, and psychological well-being. Individuals' (N=169) ability to distinguish ways of growing in their lives that are in awareness, intentional, or both is related to gender-role orientation. (Author/EMK)

The pervasiveness of information technology in higher education requires rethinking notions of student, course, curriculum, and other traditional concepts and processes of instruction. This article discusses Internet issues (access, portability, reliability, reboot priorities and back-up communications, student preparedness) and describes new…

Summarizes the recent history of education reform and statewide testing in Texas. Suggest that analyses comparing Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) reading, writing, and mathematics scores with one another and relevant high school grades raise doubts about the reliability and validity of TAAS scores. Discusses these problems. (SLD)

We examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire, a brief measure of relationship quality between youth and community-based service providers involved in their care. Data on youth residing in Therapeutic Foster Care and in Group Homes (N = 296) were collected. We identified a one-factor…

As America's public school population becomes more diverse, selecting culturally appropriate instructional materials becomes increasingly important. Though several existing scales assess the quality of curricula materials, most do not consider cultural relevance. The Curricula Appropriateness Scale (CAS) was designed to determine the…

A new psychological test battery was designed to provide a much-needed comprehensive tool for assessing the perceptual and cognitive abilities of visually handicapped children in using active touch. The test materials consist of raised-line, raised-dot, raised-surface shapes and displays, and familiar and novel 3-D objects. The research used 20…

This study examines the factorial validity, factorial invariance across gender, and construct validity of a Swedish version of the Self-Presentation in Exercise Questionnaire (SPEQ; Conroy, Motl, & Hall, 2000). The a priori two-factor 14-item, 11-item, and 9-item models fail to reach acceptable levels of fit in a calibration sample. A modified…

This study investigated teachers' motivations to undertake professional development, in particular where postgraduate study is involved. Specifically, the study involved the development, design and implementation of a psychometric instrument to measure Christian teachers' professional development motivations. Influential factors identified in the…

How can all students be provided with a first-class education with all the obstacles and challenges faced by today's schools? Based on his experiences growing up in the Mississippi Delta during the era of segregation, Clifton Taulbert shares time-honored principles that can transform the lives of the teachers, students, administrators, and staff…

Objective: Responding to the need for more foster families to provide care for increasing numbers of children coming into care, this study was designed to understand the motivations and needs of foster parents in order to improve recruitment and retention. To meet this goal, the study identified characteristics of current foster families,…

This paper examines the nature of confidence in relation to cognitive abilities, personality traits, and metacognition. Confidence was measured as it was expressed in answers to each test item during the administration of reading and listening sections of the TOEFL® iBT. The confidence scores were correlated with the accuracy scores from the TOEFL…