What began as a review of Pass-Fail ended as a comment on the evaluation schema of student academic performance. "Standards,""Evaluation" and "Grades" are defined. A brief history of grading among early North American institutions of higher learning is compared to precursory practices in Europe. The validity and reliability of traditional grades…

The analysis reported here examined the progress of observational child study from 1960 through 1975. Naturalistic observational studies were described as heuristic, highly realistic, relevant to important social problems and oriented toward significant theoretical issues. Fifteen journals encompassing child development, clinical and educational…

The current capabilities of Federal Agencies to measure the extent to which minorities receive the benefits of Federal domestic assistance programs were evaluated by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The use and collection of racial and ethnic data; responsibility for racial and ethnic data collection and use; and the legal issues of authority,…

Performance in concrete and abstract tasks is examined systematically by varying the degree of abstractness of problem-solving and concept formation tasks. Four forms of a problem solving test were constructed. Each form of the test presented problem situations through four different modes: verbal stories, picture-book, color slides,…

This study further develops the Diagnostic Survey for Leadership Improvement (DSLI) and determines its reliability and validity. Split-half estimates of the DSLI's reliability were computed. These estimates came in terms of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients that were then corrected by the Spearman-Brown Prophesy Formula. The…

The Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) program requires states to establish systems for identifying Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants likely to exhaust their UI benefits and refers them to reemployment services. An evaluation was conducted to assess the reliability of the impact estimates provided in the evaluation of the WPRS…

The Raising Quality and Achievement Program is a 3-year initiative to support further education (FE) colleges in the United Kingdom in their drive to improve students' achievement and the quality of provision. The program offers the following: (1) quality information and advice; (2) onsite support for individual colleges; (3) help with…

Racial differences in the reporting accuracy of parental status characteristics by White and Black high school seniors were investigated using Joreskog's general framework for simultaneous covariance structure analyses of multiple populations. Reliability estimates for Whites were significantly higher than for Blacks due to differences in true…

Tested links between early adolescent older sibling (OS) and younger sibling (YS) competence in rural African American families. Found that OS competence was stable across time and related to improvements in mothers' psychological functioning from Wave 1 to Wave 2. Mothers' Wave-2 psychological functioning related to Wave-3 involved-supportive…

A study found that the admission interview scores for 62 Dartmouth Medical School (New Hampshire) applicants correlated positively with dean's letter ratings given 4 years later and that interview scores were better predictors of ratings than were total Medical College Admission Test scores or science grade point averages. (Author/MSE)

Among concepts that seem to be the guardian angels of school reform, coherence is a rebel angel, advancing human learning, but escaping control. Coherence must not be confused with consistency. It allows for change and imagination but remains true to concepts and experiences that construct coherence without fabricating consistency. (SLD)

The assumption that reliability is a necessary but insufficient condition for validity in assessment is challenged by exploring a dialectic between psychometric and hermeneutic approaches to drawing and warranting interpretations of human products of performance. Hermeneutic alternatives for epistemological and ethical purposes expand the range of…

This paper investigates the psychometric properties of the African Self-Consciousness (ASC) Scale in a noncollege heterogeneous population of 147 African Americans to determine the reliability and validity of the ASC Scale. Based on analysis of the scale's reliability, factor structure, and construct validity, the study shows the ASC Scale to be a…

Examined the role of fourth graders' social self-perceptions in their social development. Found significant relationships among self-perception measures, and they were moderately stable over the school year. Found significant sociometric status and gender effects for generalized and dyadic perceptions. Inaccurate social self-perceptions predicted…

This study examined the psychometric properties of performance measures for three novel, interactive virtual reality vignette exercises developed to assess social competency skills of at-risk adolescents. Performance data were collected from 117 African-American male 15-17 year olds. Data for 18 performance measures were obtained, based on…