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The use of brief dyslexia rating scales is increasing given current dyslexia legislation efforts across the United States. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the historical context of the use of brief dyslexia rating scales, strengths, and limitations of using these measures, criteria for selecting these measures, and a review of three commonly used brief dyslexia rating scales in the United States. A discussion of how brief dyslexia rating scales can be used in conjunction with other forms of assessment is also provided. Implications for practice on using brief dyslexia rating scales are addressed in the context of both assessment and intervention. Practitioner points: Dyslexia screeners are intended to identify students who are at risk of not meeting reading performance standards and consist of both performance‐based measures and brief dyslexia rating scales.Caution should be taken when using brief dyslexia rating scale screeners due to low sample sizes for certain populations, limited numbers of students with dyslexia in the standardization sample of some measures, and variable specificity and sensitivity levels.Practitioners are encouraged to utilize performance‐based screeners if scores on a brief dyslexia rating scale screener fall below a cut score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Validity of performance standards is a key element for the defensibility of standard setting results, and validating performance standards requires collecting multiple pieces of evidence at every step during the standard setting process. This study employs a statistical procedure, latent class analysis, to set performance standards and compares latent class analysis results with previously established performance standards via the modified‐Angoff method for cross‐validation. The context of the study is an operational large‐scale science assessment administered in one of the southern states in the United States. Results show that the number of classes that emerged in the latent class analysis concurs with the number of existing performance levels. In addition, there is a substantial level of agreement between latent class analysis results and modified‐Angoff method in terms of classifying students into the same performance levels. Overall, the findings establish evidence for the validity of the performance standards identified via the modified‐Angoff method. Practical implications of the study findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, American professional psychology has taken significant steps toward a unified statement of the competencies that define the practice of psychology, regardless of specialty. The purpose of this article is to explain the current competency initiative in professional psychology and examine its implications and potential impact on graduate training in school psychology. A brief overview of competency-based training and the current competencies initiative in psychology is presented. Two significant challenges to implement competency-based training are then discussed. The first challenge has to do with conceptualizations of training and practice across accreditation agencies. As a part of the discussion, two recently published competency documents from the Assessment of Competencies Benchmark Workgroup of the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists are compared in a content analysis. The second challenge discussed is the difficulties associated with operationalizing and measuring competencies. Specifically, the empirical and consequential bases for existing assessment methods are examined. In spite of current pressure by accrediting agencies to implement a competency-based training model, based on the challenges examined in this article, significant work remains if school psychology trainers want to assure that competency-based training is done well. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accountability movement in public policy hails a new programme for US foreign assistance – the Millennium Challenge Account established in 2004 with the aim of ‘picking winners’ for grants among developing countries based on their demonstrated quality of governance. This article uses the MCA's own rating system to dispute its claim to know in advance which countries are best positioned to meet major development goals. High governance scores alone bear little or no relationship to growth in national income or decline in poverty. Attempting to measure public-policy performance limits the range of choice available to policy-makers, and may inadvertently limit true performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the need for educational transformation in the U.S. given the advent of globalization, rapid global and local changes in demography, and rise of the knowledge economy. It emphasizes that educational institution have been slow to adopt and carry out a deliberate approach towards diversity and empowerment in the workplace. It mentions a study which suggests that leaders of high-performance organizations combine four strategies which require trust, engagement, common agenda, and collective leadership.

The article discusses the role of a persuasive mandate for diversity in promoting cultural change in education in the U.S. It stresses the need for a political power which can emanate from students, board of trustees, and governance structures to be crystallized and convey clear organizational will and commitment to promote change in institutional culture. Moreover, it stresses the potential of a persuasive mandate for diversity to build an expansive network, engage stakeholders, and mobilize the systems and resources required for sustained efforts toward educational change.

Although much of the systematic, over-time research on the presidency has focused on presidential approval and how it varies in response to economic conditions and world events, there is growing interest in the impact that the public's character evaluations of the president can have on presidential approval. In an age when “image is everything,” it is important to understand how these character evaluations of the president vary over time and to assess their impact on presidential approval. Here, I develop a measure of the favorability of the president and show its utility for studying the personal dimension of the public's assessment of the president and its impact on the president's job performance rating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information concerning the implementation of professional and ethical standards in virtual reference services, as well as the quality of its e-services in light of professional and ethical standards in the field, in the U.S. The author infers that as the service matures, professional associations publish standards that provide professional guidelines to improve the quality of the services. The examination of the extent to which librarians adhere to professional and ethical guidelines and the role that virtual reference plays in providing services to diverse user groups is also discussed.

This article reviews briefly the history of the Burns Institute of Mental Measurements and then provides an overview of the expanded mission of the Bums Institute. The origins of the Mental Measurements Yearbook series are highlighted, along with discussions of goals and the evolving structure of the Yearbook series. In addition, the bibliographic reference series, Tests in Print, and the specialized monograph series are paced in historic perspective. Goals of the "new" Burns Institute of Mental Measurements, located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-six empirical studies directly investigating the effects of three classes of non-verbal variables (demographic cues, physical appearance, non-verbal behaviours) on performance appraisal were reviewed. In addition, relevant social psychological and communication research in the areas of person perception and impression formation was highlighted. The review indicated that the effects of non-verbal cues on person perception in general. acid performance appraisal in particular, are significant and varied. The review also revealed that (a) the majority of performance appraisal literature has exclusively examined demographic cues, (b) potential interactions among the three classes of non-verbal variables have been generally ignored. and (c) most of the research is non-theoretical. In an attempt to remedy this situation, a conceptual framework within which to examine the impact of non-verbal cues on the performance appraisal process was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to the activity updates of American Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology (ASDIN) in the U.S. The 5th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Antonio, Texas has been hosted by ASDIN. Meanwhile, Dr. Charles O'Neill receives the first-ever Gerald Beathard Award. Furthermore, the ASDIN certifications have been awarded to Mir Maobool Ahmad, MD, Chester A. Amedia, Jr. MD and David Lucas Mahoney, MD.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has awarded Rockwell International Corp.'s Space Systems Division, Florida Operations, and Rockwell International's Rocketdyne Division the NASA KSC Excellence Award for Quality for outstanding attention to quality. Rockwell and Rocketdyne can take pride in receiving this award knowing that they have set a quality standard at KSC by which other companies will now have to measure their performance', said Alan Parrish, KSC's safety, reliability, and quality assurance director.

The article discusses research activities at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In order to encourage small businesses to improve their quality and productivity processes, NASA is establishing a separate small business category for the 1989-90 NASA Excellence Award Program. Small businesses applying for the NASA Excellence Award for Quality and Productivity should follow the instructions as stated in the 1989-90 Excellence Award. Application reports will be accepted with as few as 15 pages.