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The Values In Action Inventory Of Strengths: A Test Summary And Critique, Alison M. Lafollette

Graduate Journal of Counseling Psychology

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) is a self-report assessment intended to measure an individual’s possession of 24 character strengths. Since the test’s development in 2004, one million people have taken the VIA-IS and it has been translated into ten languages. The test shows good reliability on measures of internal consistency and test-retest correlations and correlates substantially with self-nominations of strengths. Though the test shows few psychometric differences among the major U.S. census groups, culture-bound virtues that the VIA-IS does not assess for should also be taken into consideration. The VIA-IS allows counselors to gain a more comprehensive …

Data-Driven Decision-Making: A Case Study Of How A School District Uses Data To Inform Reading Instruction, Terese Ann Brecklin

Dissertations (1934 -)

This case study investigated the organizational structure, assessment philosophy, and instructional practices of one Wisconsin public school district in order to learn about the ways in which the district used assessment data to inform reading instruction. The study was situated within the context of the high-stakes testing environment created by No Child Left Behind legislation.

Data from multiple sources informed the study, including documents, interviews, and classroom observations. Participants included three district administrators, three elementary building principals, three elementary reading specialists and seven elementary classroom teachers. A within and cross-case analysis was conducted to determine the interrelationships between perceptions about …