REL Pacific at McREL, 1 of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), serves educators in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawai'i, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic…

In "Unique Characteristics of Diagnostic Classification Models: A Comprehensive Review of the Current State-of-the-Art," Rupp and Templin (2008) undertake the ambitious task of providing a thorough portrait of the current state of diagnostic classification models (DCM). In this commentary, the author applauds Rupp and Templin for their…

Scores are the most visible and widely used products of a testing program. The choice of score scale has implications for test specifications, equating, and test reliability and validity, as well as for test interpretation. At the same time, the score scale should be viewed as infrastructure likely to require repair at some point. In this report…

Fluent reading enables readers to focus on gaining meaning from what is read. This crucial facet of reading is often neglected instruction in elementary and is nearly non-existent in middle and high school instruction (Allington, 1983; Rasinski, Padak, McKeon, Wilfong, Friedauer, & Heim, 2005). At the elementary level, fluency instruction focuses…

This study examined the relationship between the implementation of No Child Left Behind and the achievement gap between African American and white students' eighth-grade math scores on the yearly-standardized test (Criterion Referenced Competency Test--CRCT) in Georgia. A descriptive research design was utilized to examine data obtained from the…

Formative assessment measures are commonly used in schools to assess reading and to design instruction accordingly. The purpose of this research was to investigate the incremental and concurrent validity of formative assessment measures of reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that formative measures of reading comprehension would contribute…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) developed by Silvera, Martinussen, and Dahl (2001). 719 students from Sakarya University participated in the study. Construct validity and criterion related validity and reliability were assessed.…

This paper reports the outcomes of a School of Law project undertaken in response to issues arising during the implementation of an institutional criterion-referenced assessment policy. The project involved the development of a set of generic assessment criteria and standards, or rubric, which could be customized to the requirements of individual…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether there was a significant increase in the reading achievement during second- and third-grade of the 12 students who attended Midway Elementary Professional Development School (PDS) from kindergarten through fifth grade. Additionally, the study was seeking a possible relationship between the in-service…

On virtually all tests these days, there is a score that determines whether a student passes or fails, is proficient or not, or is being educated or left behind. This is the cut score. This author states that, while it might seem cynical, the fairest way to set the cutoff score is to decide in advance how many students a person wants to fail. This…

Results are reported for 3 years of in-service training provided to managers and direct care personnel employed in community, residential, and vocational programs for developmentally disabled adults. The data demonstrate the efficacy of the training model in that 1015 (97%) of 1080 training objectives attempted were completed by the trainees at…

This study explored the relationship between reading and achievement on a science standardized test. A nonfiction reading subtest and the science section of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test were compared for Grade 10 students at 3 Connecticut high schools. Results showed a moderate-to-strong positive relationship between the variables.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the instructional effectiveness of different online reading strategies for students identified as possessing different learning styles, either internal or external locus of control styles, on tests measuring different learning objectives. Participants were 169 undergraduate students, randomly assigned to…

The purpose of this study was to document the relationship between two commonly-used indicators of reading proficiency (i.e., Oral Reading Fluency [ORF] and Retell Fluency [RTF]) and two reading outcome tests in the state of Montana. Third and fourth grade students were assessed over 1 school year (2005-2006). Each student was assessed at three…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the academic impacts of the Twenty-First Century Community Learning Centers on students who participated in this program. The following research questions guided the study: (a) are there significant differences between the Criterion Reference Competency Test English Language Arts scores of…