Search

This article describes the development of the Early Elementary Writing Rubric (EEWR), an analytic assessment designed to measure kindergarten and first-grade writing and inform educators' instruction. Crocker and Algina's (1986) approach to instrument development and validation was used as a guide to create and refine the writing measure. Study 1 describes the development of the 10-item measure (response scale ranges from 0 = "Beginning of Kindergarten" to 5 = "End of First Grade"). Educators participated in focus groups, expert panel review, cognitive interviews, and pretesting as part of the instrument development process. Study 2 evaluates measurement quality in terms of score reliability and validity. Data from writing samples produced by 634 students in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms were collected during pilot testing. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the EEWR. A one-factor model fit the data for all writing genres and all scoring elements were retained with loadings ranging from 0.49 to 0.92. Internal consistency reliability was high and ranged from 0.89 to 0.91. Interrater reliability between the researcher and participants varied from poor to good and means ranged from 52% to 72%. First-grade students received higher scores than kindergartners on all 10 scoring elements. The EEWR holds promise as an acceptable, useful, and psychometrically sound measure of early writing. Further iterative development is needed to fully investigate its ability to accurately identify the present level of student performance and to determine sensitivity to developmental and instruction gains.

High school students in accelerated classes face heightened school-related stressors but have access to few specialized supports. This article describes the development and initial application of the Motivation, Assessment, and Planning (MAP) intervention, developed to meet the needs of freshmen in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula. MAP is grounded in motivational interviewing and designed to evoke behavior change following one to two individual meetings with a coach. This study used a multimethod, multisource approach to evaluate the applicability and acceptability of MAP as a Tier 2 support for 9th-grade students completing AP/IB coursework. Quantitative and qualitative acceptability data from 49 AP/IB students, 7 coaches, and 3 potential end-users of MAP were examined. Results indicate MAP was perceived as an acceptable intervention for addressing the social-emotional needs of high-achieving students taking AP/IB classes. Findings and directions for further research of MAP are discussed.

Despite the known benefits of campus recreation participation, many students do not engage with the programs and services offered on college campuses. College students report factors that constrain leisure time physical activity within the context of campus recreation. Examining the constraints and negotiation strategies of college students specific to the use of campus recreation facilities and programs is understudied and lacks validated instruments. The purpose of this study was to develop and report initial validity and reliability of the Campus Recreation Constraints and Negotiation Questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to evaluate two independent scales. Psychometric properties including construct validity, internal structure, and reliability are reported from two different samples of college students. Practical implications for campus recreation programming and marketing efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Conceptualizations of health have expanded to include indicators of adolescents' physical and mental wellness, rather than solely the absence of diseases or disorders. Although extensive research has identified links between mental and physical wellness, few studies have investigated the relationship between health promotion and happiness, particularly in adolescent populations who may be at particular risk for engaging in health-compromising behaviors, such as alcohol consumption. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between 12 health-promoting behaviors and subjective well-being in a sample of 450 high school students from 2 states. Participants reported on their diet, physical activity, sleep hygiene habits, as well as abstinence from tobacco and alcohol products, and completed a multidimensional assessment of subjective well-being. Results: Findings demonstrated that 7 of the 12 health-promoting behaviors were significantly correlated with adolescents' subjective well-being. A sizeable portion of the variance in adolescents' subjective well-being (39.8%) was accounted for by the linear combination of the 12 health-promoting behaviors of interest. Increased physical activity, sleep hygiene cognitive/emotional factors, and bedtime routine all were identified as unique predictors of subjective well-being. Conclusions: These findings bring attention to the salience of daily physical activity and sleep hygiene and their associations with adolescents' happiness.

Research has shown that students in Advanced Placement (AP) classes and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs experience higher levels of stress compared to students in general education classes. Elevated stress can serve as a risk factor for students' academic and mental health problems. Given the documented stress of these students, additional investigations are needed to more fully understand how students experience these curricula and the factors associated with positive student outcomes. Thus, we set out to identify factors associated with success among AP/IB students, with an emphasis on exploring potentially malleable factors that could be targeted with existing or newly developed interventions. Data were collected via self-report measures and school records from 2,379 students (Grades 9-12) enrolled in AP or IB in 20 school programs in one state. We examined the relationships among 34 predictors (e.g., stressors, coping styles, student engagement, family factors, school factors, and demographic features) of success. Success was represented by five outcomes in two domains: mental health (life satisfaction, psychopathology, school burnout) and academic (GPA, AP/IB exam scores). Better outcomes in both domains were associated with higher levels of achievement motivation and cognitive engagement, as well as lower levels of parent-child conflict, stress from major life events, and use of avoidance coping strategies. Higher levels of affective engagement, use of approach coping, and authoritative parenting were robust predictors of positive mental health outcomes and unrelated (in multivariate analyses) to academic outcomes. Findings have implications for subsequent development of intervention efforts targeting factors associated with student success.

Purpose: This article describes the development and initial validation of the Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) Involvement in Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Questionnaire. It was developed to measure the extent to which SLPs are involved in MTSS at their school site(s). Method: A total of 567 SLPs practicing in the United States responded to up to 39 Likert-type items meant to reflect six domains: scope of practice, professional development, leadership, consulting/collaborating, assessment and analysis, and intervention. Measurement quality was evaluated in terms of score reliability and validity. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the internal structure of the questionnaire responses. A three-factor model with the following dimensions of Carrying out Roles and Responsibilities, Leading, and Planning and Providing Interventions was supported. Loadings for retained factors ranged from .35 to .87. Internal consistency estimates ranged from 0.87 to 0.92. Descriptive statistics summarized the overall involvement of SLPs in MTSS, and responses to questions to assess the feasibility and acceptability of this questionnaire were analyzed. Results: Questionnaire responses indicated that SLPs infrequently engage in MTSS activities. The item with the highest mean was related to SLPs collaborating with teachers to help them address students' speech and language disorders in their classrooms. Most of the SLPs who took the questionnaire found it easy to complete, but only some found the information to be useful. Conclusions: The infrequent involvement of SLPs in MTSS indicates a need to disseminate information on the potentially valuable roles SLPs can play in MTSS implementation. This tool may be used by SLPs to better understand contributions they can make within an MTSS framework and self-reflect on their current levels of involvement.

Factor mixture modeling (FMM) has been increasingly used to investigate unobserved population heterogeneity. This study examined the issue of covariate effects with FMM in the context of measurement invariance testing. Specifically, the impact of excluding and misspecifying covariate effects on measurement invariance testing and class enumeration was investigated via Monte Carlo simulations. Data were generated based on FMM models with (1) a zero covariate effect, (2) a covariate effect on the latent class variable, and (3) covariate effects on both the latent class variable and the factor. For each population model, different analysis models that excluded or misspecified covariate effects were fitted. Results highlighted the importance of including proper covariates in measurement invariance testing and evidenced the utility of a model comparison approach in searching for the correct specification of covariate effects and the level of measurement invariance. This approach was demonstrated using an empirical data set. Implications for methodological and applied research are discussed.

We report the results of a preregistered, cluster randomized controlled trial of a mathematics learning intervention known as interleaved practice. Whereas most mathematics assignments consist of a block of problems devoted to the same skill or concept, an interleaved assignment is arranged so that no 2 consecutive problems require the same strategy. Previous small-scale studies found that practice assignments with a greater proportion of interleaved practice produced higher test scores. In the present study, we assessed the efficacy and feasibility of interleaved practice in a naturalistic setting with a large, diverse sample. Each of 54 7th-grade mathematics classes periodically completed interleaved or blocked assignments over a period of 4 months, and then both groups completed an interleaved review assignment. One month later, students took an unannounced test, and the interleaved group outscored the blocked group, 61% versus 38%, d = 0.83. Teachers were able to implement the intervention without training, and they later expressed support for interleaved practice in an anonymous survey they completed before they knew the results of the study. Although important caveats remain, the results suggest that interleaved mathematics practice is effective and feasible. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED595322.]

Background: Whereas much attention has been focused on adolescent risk behaviors such as substance use, much less has been devoted to self-injury in the general adolescent population. Purpose: This study had two purposes: (1) describe the prevalence of self-injury among early adolescents in the general middle school population, and (2) identify behaviors that are comorbid with self-injury. Methods: This study involved a secondary analysis of data gathered from 1,734 6th and 8th grade students using the middle school Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Results: The prevalence of self-injury among middle school youth in this study (N=1734) was 28.4%. Although the relationship between having ever tried self-injury and gender was significant, the effect size was small. Multilevel logistic regression identified six variables that were significantly related to (P less than 0.01) having ever tried self-injury: peer self-injury, having ever tried inhalants, grade level, and belief in possibilities, abnormal eating behaviors and suicide. Discussion: This is the first study to empirically examine self-injury in relation to multiple risk behaviors within a community sample of early adolescents with the goal of informing school-based prevention efforts. Translation to Health Education Practice: School personnel can be observant for evidence of self-injury as well as other risk behaviors and be vigilant about experiences that may be contributing to their development. (Contains 6 tables.)

Wording effects associated with positively and negatively worded items have been found in many scales. Such effects may threaten construct validity and introduce systematic bias in the interpretation of results. A variety of models have been applied to address wording effects, such as the correlated uniqueness model and the correlated traits and correlated methods model. This study presents the multilevel bifactor approach to handling wording effects of mixed-format scales used in a multilevel context. The Students Confident in Mathematics scale is used to illustrate this approach. Results from comparing a series of models showed that positive and negative wording effects were present at both the within and the between levels. When the wording effects were ignored, the within-level predictive validity of the Students Confident in Mathematics scale was close to that under the multilevel bifactor model. However, at the between level, a lower validity coefficient was observed when ignoring the wording effects. Implications for applied researchers are discussed.

High school students in accelerated curricula face stressors beyond typical adolescent developmental challenges. The Student Rating of Environmental Stressors Scale (StRESS) is a self-report measure of environmental stressors appropriate for students in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. We developed the StRESS in parallel with a new measure of coping designed for this same population. Items were derived from sentiments expressed during focus groups and individual interviews with 177 students, 72 parents, and 47 teachers. Multiple iterations of expert review and item analyses focusing on conceptual clarity and comprehensiveness resulted in 75 items reflecting stressors across domains, including school, home, and peers. High school students in AP or IB (N = 727) completed the 75-item inventory. Exploratory factor analyses and additional item review indicated a five-factor solution with 32 items. Cronbach's alpha reliabilities ranged from 0.67 to 0.88. Five additional items representing a composite of Major Life Events also were included. The five factors and Major Life Events composite had test-retest reliabilities greater than 0.70. These scores were related to multiple conceptualizations of stress, as well as academic outcomes (GPA and attendance) and mental health (life satisfaction and anxiety), thus supporting the construct validity of the StRESS scores. Further support for the five-factor structure of the StRESS was provided by results of a confirmatory factor analysis (standardized root mean square residual = 0.051, root mean square error of approximation = 0.048, comparative fit index = 0.900) with a separate sample of 2,193 AP and IB students.

This article presents information on the development and initial validation of the 16-item Response to Intervention (RTI) Beliefs Scale. The scale is designed to measure the extent to which educators working in schools hold beliefs consistent with the tenets of RTI. The authors administered the instrument to 2,430 educators in 62 elementary schools in the fall of 2007 and 2,443 educators in 68 elementary schools in the spring of 2008. Exploratory, single-level confirmatory, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis procedures were used to examine construct validity. Results supported a correlated 3-factor model (Academic Abilities and Performance of Students with Disabilities, Data-Based Decision Making, and Functions of Core and Supplemental Instruction) at both the school and educator levels of analysis. Furthermore, the factor scores derived from the model demonstrated significant, positive relations to RTI implementation. Reliability estimates for two of the three factor scores exceeded 0.70. Implications for research on educator beliefs and implementation of RTI as well as implications for school psychologists supporting RTI implementation are discussed.

In this mixed method research, we examined the effects of reading and singing software program (RSSP) as a reading intervention on struggling readers' reading achievement as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the high stakes state test administered in the state of Florida, at one elementary school. Our team defined struggling readers as students who performed below grade level on the FCAT in the previous year. We investigated student engagement with the program and teacher support and guidance through quantitative and qualitative methods. From our observations, we synthesized and describe our findings below into two over categories: program implementation and student motivation and engagement.

In this study we investigated adopted Chinese girls' expressive English language outcomes in relation to their age at adoption, chronological age, length of exposure to English and developmental risk status at the time of adoption. Vocabulary and phrase utterance data on 318 girls were collected from the adoptive mothers using the Language Development Survey (LDS) (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). The girls, aged 18-35 months (M=26[middle dot]2 months, SD=4[middle dot]9 months), were adopted at ages ranging from 6[middle dot]8 to 24 months (M=12[middle dot]6 months, SD=3[middle dot]1 months), and had been exposed to English for periods ranging from 1[middle dot]6 to 27[middle dot]6 months (M=13[middle dot]7, SD=5[middle dot]7). Findings suggest that vocabulary and mean length of phrase scores were negatively correlated with age at adoption but positively correlated with chronological age and length of exposure to English. Developmental risk status at the time of adoption was not correlated with language outcomes. The gap between their expressive language and that of same-age girls from the US normative sample was wider for children aged 18-23 months but was closed for children aged 30-35 months. About 16% of the children met the LDS criteria for delays in vocabulary and 17% met the LDS criteria for delays in mean length of phrase. Speech/language interventions were received by 33[middle dot]3% of the children with delays in vocabulary and 25% with delays in phrase.

Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the factor structure underlying the 12-item, three-factor "Interagency Collaboration Activities Scale" (ICAS) at the informant level and at the agency level. Results from 378 professionals (104 administrators, 201 service providers, and 73 case managers) from 32 children's mental health service agencies supported a correlated three-factor model at each level and indicated that the item loadings were not significantly (p greater than 0.05) different across levels. Reliability estimates of the three factors (Financial and Physical Resource Activities, Program Development and Evaluation Activities, and Collaborative Policy Activities) at the agency level were 0.81, 0.60, and 0.72, respectively, whereas these estimates were 0.79, 0.82, and 0.85 at the individual level. These multilevel results provide support for the construct validity of the scores from the ICAS. When the ICAS was examined in relation to Level 1 and Level 2 covariates, results showed that participants' characteristics (i.e., age, job role, gender, educational level, and number of months employed) and agency characteristics (i.e., state location and number of employees) were not significantly (p greater than 0.05) related to levels of interagency collaboration. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Early childhood social-emotional assessment has traditionally focused on risk factors or psychopathology, and has less frequently examined protective factors that may serve to promote positive developmental outcomes for children. To advance conceptual models that include protective factors as key explanatory constructs, there is a need for quantitative measures of protective factors that are psychometrically sound and function similarly across different subgroups, including gender. This study examined the factor structure and factorial invariance across gender of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA), one of the few measures to focus on protective behaviors. A total of 1,344 parents completed the DECA for a group of developmentally and economically at-risk children ages 2 to 5 years. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis, the first to be conducted on the DECA, revealed that the factor structure proposed by the authors of the DECA was adequate with some modifications. Multigroup comparisons by gender supported the invariance of the factor pattern coefficients and 26 of the 27 item intercepts, indicating that the items were functioning similarly across boys and girls. Suggestions for improving problematic item pairs and content are provided. This study can be viewed as part of the ongoing validation of the DECA and an important contribution to the strength-based assessment literature. (Contains 2 tables.)

The central goal of this longitudinal study was to examine behavioral adjustment outcomes in a sample of preschool-age adopted Chinese girls. Research examining the effects of institutional deprivation on post-adoption behavioral outcomes for internationally adopted children has been constrained by the frequent unavailability of data on the institutional experiences of adopted children. Using child-level measures of the residual effects of pre-adoption deprivation or adversity, the present study of 452 preschool-age girls adopted from China tested the hypothesis that these measures will better predict behavioral adjustment (as measured on the CBCL/1.5-5) than age at adoption (AAA), used conventionally as a proxy measure of the magnitude of deprivation effects. Along with AAA (M = 13.1 months, SD = 5.1), our measures were used to predict behavioral adjustment at two time points (M[subscript age] = 2.7 years at Time 1 and 4.8 years at Time 2). There was strong stability in behavioral adjustment across time, and the regression results showed that delays in social skills, refusal/avoidance behaviors, and crying/clinging behaviors at the time of adoption, rather than AAA, predicted behavioral adjustment outcomes. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study analyzed the reporting of multilevel modeling applications of a sample of 99 articles from 13 peer-reviewed journals in education and the social sciences. A checklist, derived from the methodological literature on multilevel modeling and focusing on the issues of model development and specification, data considerations, estimation, and inference, was used to analyze the articles. The most common applications were two-level models where individuals were nested within contexts. Most studies were non-experimental and used nonprobability samples. The amount of data at each level varied widely across studies, as did the number of models examined. Analyses of reporting practices indicated some clear problems, with many articles not reporting enough information for a reader to critique the reported analyses. For example, in many articles, one could not determine how many models were estimated, what covariance structure was assumed, what type of centering if any was used, whether the data were consistent with assumptions, whether outliers were present, or how the models were estimated. Guidelines for researchers reporting multilevel analyses are provided. (Contains 6 tables.)

The purpose of this quantitative study, funded by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) through Just Read, Florida!, was to investigate the use of Tune in[TM] to Reading, an innovative reading intervention, with struggling adolescent readers in the juvenile justice system. One hundred and three students who exhibited issues ranging from behavioral problems to substance abuse and sexual offenses, from six residential sites, participated in this study. All participants were male with 52% African American, 31% Caucasian, and 13% Hispanic. Sixty percent of the students were in grades 8 and 9 and 44% of the students were identified as students with disabilities. At each site, students were randomized to the reading intervention, Tune in[TM] to Reading (TIR), or to a control condition (typically FCAT Explorer). A Cloze assessment was administered to students in both treatment and control groups before and after the nine week study period. Results across the six sites were mixed with TIR showing more positive effects, compared to the control in two schools, and similar effects compared to the control condition in four schools. Larger treatment effects (TIR) compared to the control condition, were observed for certain subgroups of students, including Hispanic, African American, and students with disabilities. (Contains 8 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the construct validity of the scores from Rose's (2003) 34-item "Ideal Mentor Scale" (IMS) and to examine whether male and female doctoral students value different attributes in their ideal mentor. Two hundred and twenty-four doctoral students from colleges (Education, Public Health, Nursing, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Business) throughout a large state research university participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis of the IMS revealed that the fit of the three-factor model (Integrity, Guidance, and Relationship) was not satisfactory. A major source of misfit involved covariances between errors of similarly worded items. Gender comparisons of the three subscales and individual items on the IMS indicated that male and female doctoral students were more alike than different regarding qualities they desire in their ideal mentor. The largest difference was observed on the item "Believe in me" (Integrity subscale) with female doctoral students rating this as more important than male students. The potential of the "Ideal Mentor Scale" for stimulating conversations about mentoring and clarifying expectations of students and faculty is discussed.

With the proliferation of eportfolios and their organizational uses in higher education, it is important for educators and other relevant stakeholders to understand the student perspective. The way students view and use ePortfolios are revealing elements to aid educators in the successful integration of ePortfolio systems. This research describes the development of the Electronic Portfolio Student Perspective Instrument (EPSPI) and initial validation (N = 204) efforts in the context of an ePortfolio initiative in a College of Education. The EPSPI incorporates four domains from a student perspective: employment, visibility, assessment, and learning; and connects those domains with four relevant stakeholders: students, administrators, faculty, and employers. Descriptive analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and a qualitative analysis using grounded theory were used. Results indicate that student perspectives towards ePortfolios are multidimensional with three distinct, internally consistent underlying constructs: learning, assessment, and visibility. Qualitative analysis revealed four interrelated themes from a student perspective: system characteristics, support structure, purpose, and personal impact.

Confirmatory factor analysis with robust weighted least squares estimation of the 103 dichotomously scored items of the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18 (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) in a sample of 516 girls adopted from China (ages 6.0-15.7 years; M = 8.2, SD = 1.9) indicated that the fit of the 8-factor model was good (root-mean-square error of approximation = 0.047) and was slightly better than what T. M. Achenbach and L. A. Rescorla (2001) reported for the same model (0.06). Support for the 2nd-order factor structure of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems also was provided. Comparisons of the mean scores for the syndromes and Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems revealed mostly small differences between the sample of adopted Chinese girls and T. M. Achenbach and L. A. Rescorla's normative samples.

An experimental study (n = 288 general and special education teachers) examining the effects of altering the referent ("students with mild disabilities," "students with severe disabilities," or "students with disabilities") on a four-item scale (Negative Effect of Inclusion) indicated that wording changes had little effect on the scale's psychometric properties (e.g., factor pattern coefficients). Changes did result in a shift in the mean level of the attitude scale. Regression coefficients between the scale and type of teacher, total years of teaching experience, years of experience at current school, and training in inclusion were not significantly altered by changing the referent. Gender was the only predictor that exhibited a lack of invariance in its regression coefficients across questionnaire forms that differed in referent. For most of the bivariate relationships examined in this study, the same conclusions would be drawn no matter which of the three referents were used. (Contains 5 tables.)

For the study reported here, the authors used growth mixture modeling to analyze changes in alcohol and marijuana use and the use of drug and alcohol treatment services for a sample of 180 adolescents with serious emotional disturbance (ages 12-14 years at the beginning of the 7-year longitudinal study). Three latent classes of substance users were identified, two of which exhibited significant linear increases in substance use. As expected, adolescents who were heavily involved in substance use at the beginning of the study and who significantly increased their substance use were the most likely to receive the greatest number of alcohol and drug services. Adolescents who had low levels of substance use at the beginning of the study but whose substance use increased significantly during the study received fewer services. The fact that the initially low substance-use class eventually ended up resembling the high substance-use class at the end of the 7-year study underscores the importance of collecting longitudinal data on substance use and employing the rate of "change in substance use" as an indicator of the need for treatment. Advantages of growth mixture and parallel processing modeling for studying changes in substance use and services are discussed.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Preschool Language, Literacy, and Behavior Screener (PLLB-S). We examined and tested the factor structure of the PLLB-S using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. We further conducted internal consistency, concurrent validity, and predictive validity analyses and evaluated teacher satisfaction using PLLB-S. Our factor analyses resulted in 22 items distributed among three subscales with high internal consistency: Oral language, emergent literacy, and behavior skills. The PLLB-S and its subscales correlated moderately to strongly with standardized measures. The emergent literacy of the PLLB-S was the only subscale that significantly predicted children's later vocabulary knowledge. Preschool teachers reported high satisfaction with the content and purpose of the questionnaire. We concluded that this tool with sound psychometric properties can potentially help increase the feasibility and efficiency of implementing standardized assessments in MTSS frameworks in preschool classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]