Debate grows over the validity and reliability of college and university rankings, which judge rather than describe institutions, as the public's willingness to accept them increases. While many institutional characteristics can be measured, measurement methods need improvement. One solution is to publish the peer studies that the institutions…

Examines the types of computerized resources and services available for research in American history, finding that electronic mail, discussion lists, and library catalogs are most frequently utilized. Internet documents are used cautiously due to unreliable locations and authenticity. In the future, historians will want electronic journals and…

Describes the experiences of Rhode Island's Higher Education Library Information Network (HELIN) Consortium in purchasing electronic journals and databases. Discusses criteria and guidelines developed to help in the decision making process, including coverage, indexing, search features, help features, screen design, full text availability,…

The PLS-4 (Preschool Language Scale, 4th edition) is a psychometrically sound instrument constructed to assess language skills in children from birth to 6 years 11 months. It is a useful diagnostic and research tool that can be used to identify current comprehension and expressive language skills and can measure changes in language skills over…

Response to intervention (RTI) has emerged as a promising, but possibly vulnerable, alternative to the current model of identification and eligibility assessment in special education. Nested within a simple and compelling structure for RTI are many questions and challenges that make its future as "policy" at-risk unless these issues can…

Objectives: The respect that African American youth feel promotes psychological wellness and social identity; conversely, a lack of respect compromises their identities and is viewed as a threat to safety. This article describes the development, psychometric analysis, and validation of the African American Respect Scale, a 20-item instrument…

This research investigated stability and change in the self-appraisal of having lived up to one's abilities from midlife to later aging. The subjects were 185 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted, who had been asked to rate themselves with respect to living up to their abilities in 1960 (at an average age of 48) and in 1996 (at an…

In 1995, the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the Local Systemic Change through Teacher Enhancement program. The initiative's primary goal is to improve instruction in science, mathematics, and technology through teacher professional development within whole schools or school districts. NSF funded the first cohort of Local Systemic…

This study presents the conceptualization and subsequent model fit analysis of a retention model for Latino/a students at urban commuter universities. The three institutions involved in the study represent different environments for Latino/a students. Two are Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and the third represents a predominantly White…

The Standardized Letter of Recommendation (SLR), a 28-item form, was created by ETS to supplement the qualitative rating of graduate school applicants' nonacademic qualities with a quantitative approach. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the following psychometric properties of the SLR using the Rasch rating-scale model: dimensionality,…

This article explores applications of the Self-Organizing Maps method (SOM) to psycho-educational data. The study examines the psychological well-being, self-regulatory and motivational styles of pupils at elementary and middle school (N = 795). The presentation of the method appears in cases which are related to general education, special needs…

The purpose of this study was to determine associations between science and mathematics students' perceptions of their classroom learning environments, the cultural backgrounds and gender of students, and their attitudinal and achievement outcomes. The subjects were 3,994 students from 182 secondary school science and mathematics classes in 35…

Four papers describe a study of the use of holistic writing assessment procedures in a pretest and posttest manner to determine improvement of 10th graders' writing skills. "Problem and Context" (James E. McLean) briefly describes the project and introduces the other three papers. "Holistic Scoring Procedures for Scoring Writing…

Researchers have been limited in their ability to examine multiple constructs simultaneously due to the constraints imposed by traditional statistical methods. The most notable limitations include the need for a relatively large sample size while restricting the variables to a relatively small number. The application of a newly discovered…

The aim of this study was to incorporate a web-assisted program to normal traditional classroom instruction and study about students' misconceptions in force and motion concepts in physics. The Web-based physics program was incorporated with the traditional lecture. Specifically, 30% of class time was allocated for using this tutorial program, and…