Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

No. 126 1995 November

International Journal for Business Education

SIEC Historical Documents

Koinonia, Melissa Schermer, Steve Moore, Alan Mula

Koinonia

An Article by Philip Yancey

President's Corner

CoCCA: Sharing the Wealth

Photo Collage of the ACSD '95 Conference

Who Wants Revival?

Book Review: Managing Student Affairs Effectively

Distinguished Service Awards

Hop on the Information Superhighway with the ACSD Electronic Discussion Group

The Effect Of Gender And Age On Ppst Performance In An Urban Teacher Education Program, Judith Harrington

Counseling Faculty Publications

This study examined PPST scores for 318 College of Education students in a midsized, midwestern, urban university. Factors of gender and age were used to compare performance on the three PPST subtests of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Findings tended to support some gender-stereotypical beliefs with regard to math and verbal abilities. The study's findings did not support the often perceived belief that traditional students outperform nontraditional students. Inferences for urban colleges of Education are discussed.

A Study Of The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And School Climate, Christine L. Jensen

Dissertations

The study investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and school climate in elementary schools in w est Michigan with enrollments of 200-800 students. Eighteen school districts with 294 participating teachers completed two questionnaires.

The independent variable of transformational leadership was investigated by using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to measure teachers' perceptions of leadership factors. The dependent variable of school climate was investigated by using the Organizational Climate Descriptor Questionnaire-Revised Elementary. The questionnaire was used to determine teachers' perceptions of principal openness, teacher openness, and overall school climate.

As a result of the data analysis, the investigation supported that there was …

Dedication- Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

The impetus for this book and for my involvement in it are due principally to the efforts of three people: Jimmie Fortune, Howard Stoker, and Barbara Plake. Jimmie edited (and contributed to) an earlier book devoted to licensure testing (Fortune, J. C., & Associates, 1985, Understanding Testing in Occupational Licensing, Jossey Bass: San Francisco.). Shortly after that book was published he told me that he felt some important topics had not been included and that another book was needed. He encouraged me on several occasions to edit a new book that picked up where his left off and expand …

Preface- Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

This book represents a unique effort for the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements and the Buros-Nebraska Series on Measurement and Testing. All of the previous books in this series have been associated with a symposium sponsored by the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements and the University of Nebraska. This book is "free standing" in that it is an independent effort intended to fulfill a perceived need for a book, but without preceding the book with a symposium. There are few books devoted solely to the topic of licensure testing, but each state and the federal government is involved in this …

Classroom Personalities Of Effective Teachers Within A Technical College Setting, Fred Manley

Dissertations

This study used student ratings to examine relationships between instructor personality and teaching effectiveness for technical college faculty. Research was specifically conducted to address three questions: (1) what personality traits are associated with effective teaching, (2) do the personality profiles of effective teachers differ by academic area, and (3) are there personality dimensions that distinguish above average from below-average instructors.

Students enrolled in classes taught by instructors randomly selected from the accounting, computer information systems, marketing, and office occupations departments at five Wisconsin technical colleges rated their instructors on 29 personality traits and 18 teaching behaviors. Pearson product-moment correlations were …

Teachers' Perception Of Instructional Leadership And Student Achievement, David Anspaugh

Dissertations

The focus of this study was to investigate the teachers' perceptions of the principal's leadership behaviors and how the achievement level of the students was affected. Three middle schools representing the Prairie View Public Schools were used in the study. These middle schools were Sparta Middle School, High Plain Middle School, and Middleville Middle School.

A staff survey was given to the 33 teachers in each of the buildings. The survey dealt with 18 leadership behaviors of the principal. The teachers were asked to rate the behaviors as to their importance to them and if the behaviors existed. The survey …

A Descriptive Study Of The Implementation Process For All-Day Alternate Day Kindergarten Schedules In Michigan Public Schools, Kenneth G. Drenth

Dissertations

This research project was initiated and designed to gather data on the decision making, implementation, and evaluative processes being used in Michigan schools implementing all-day alternate day kindergarten schedules.

The major issues of concern w ere an assessment of preplanning activities transpiring prior to implementation, staff development preparations, parental involvement in the decision-making process, and evaluative data collected.

Data were collected during the fall of 1994 via a questionnaire sent to 68 Michigan school districts that had implemented an all-day alternate day kindergarten. The same questionnaire was also sent to five Michigan school districts that had implemented the all-day alternate …

Volume 08, Number 03, Richard F. Welch Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 08, Number 03 of Reaching Through Teaching.

The Role Of Transformational Leadership In The Collaborative Development Of A Full Inclusion Program: An Action Research Study, Paul R. Hain

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation is a critical action research study on full inclusion for students with learning disabilities. The study describes how full inclusion for 16 students with learning disabilities in three regular classes was implemented in an Illinois elementary school over a one year period. The purpose of this study is to describe how transformational leadership, collaborative decision-making and action research helped in the development of full inclusion.

Action research was the method used to 1) observe and collect data about the project, 2) to analyze what was happening, and 3) help guide the inclusion teaching team in taking actions …

Koinonia, Harley Schreck, Jon Kaluga

Koinonia

Taking Student Culture Seriously: A coordinated program of research by five colleges in the Christian College Coalition, Harley Schreck

President's Corner, the Editor's Disk

ACSD Proposed Bylaw Change, New Professionals' Retreat Cancelled

CoCCA: Know Teams? No Problem & Hot Ideas!

Book Review-Right from Wrong: What You Need to Know to Help Youth Make Right Choices

New South East Regional Director, Northwest Regional Activity

A Study Of The Effect Of Developmental Kindergarten Placement On Student Achievement: Issues And Other Alternatives For The "Unready" Child, Sandra F. Earley

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of developmental kindergarten placement beyond third grade and whether differences exist in levels of academic achievement between students who participated in developmental kindergarten and those who were recommended to attend but did not.

The target population of this study spanned 3 years and included 203 kindergarten eligible students in a suburban school district in mid- Michigan who were recommended to attend developmental kindergarten. The accessible population was 105 of the original 203 students.

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) reading and mathematics test mean scores were analyzed for both groups …

No. 125 1995 April

International Journal for Business Education

SIEC Historical Documents

The Nature Of Data Sources That Inform Decision-Making In Reading By Experienced Second-Grade Teachers, Margaret Mary Dinan Davis

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This qualitative research was designed to describe the nature of data sources that inform decision making in reading by experienced second grade teachers. Data was collected on seven subjects from multiple sources: seven, successive interviews, think alouds using videotaped lessons, classroom observations, and inspection of documents such as grade books, student work samples, report cards, and reading tests. Data analysis was accomplished by transcribing all data into a qualitative data base (Padilla, 1991). Text chunks were tagged and filtered by data source. Categories such as oral language and comparison of data were added as they emerged during analysis. The most …

Section One: Purposes And Policy Issues

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

No Content

Section Two: Overview Of The Procedures For Developing A Licensure Examination, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

There are a variety of strategies that may be employed in the development of a licensure examination. The following list of activities illustrates typical procedures. Depending on the needs and conditions of the particular occupation, certain variations in specific activities may take place or changes in the sequence may be appropriate. In addition to the procedures listed, many decisions will be made that may add activities. For example, the decision to use a computerized item bank or to enter into a computerized adaptive testing format will require procedures in addition to those described briefly below.

1. Conducting a job (or …

6. Developing And Using Clinical Examinations, Jimmie C. Fortune, Theodore R. Cromack

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

Generally, clinical examinations for licensing (sometimes called performance tests) involve the candidate completing one or more tasks (in licensing this is thought of as "services for a client") that have been selected from the supervised practice Gob analysis) of an occupation or profession. The clinical examination may exist in contexts (occupations) that do not require client interactions. Such contexts include building trades, automobile repair, accounting, etc. The tasks may range from fixing brakes, to preparing a body for burial, to wiring a house, or auditing a set of business interactions.

Other contexts require the candidate to perform services or …

7. Basic Psychometric Issues In Licensure Testing, Howard W. Stoker, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

The number of people in the United States who carry some responsibility for the writing of examination questions and the construction of tests is unknown. In the Preface to The Construction and Use of Achievement Examinations, published by the American Council on Education in 1936, the authors indicated that the number probably exceeded a million. That number has certainly grown in the past 60 years. Questions are posed to students by teachers at all levels of education; the Armed Forces have people whose job it is to construct tests which are used in the promotion of personnel; over …

4. Practice Analysis: Building The Foundation For Validity, Joan E. Knapp, Lenora G. Knapp

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

A review of the literature associated with job analysis reveals two extremes of opinion as represented by the following provocative quotes:

Historically job analysis has been a relatively soporific area of industrial and organizational psychology, characterized by neither heated controversy nor prominent visibility in the research literature. (Harvey, 1991, p. 71)

Validation was once a priestly mystery, a ritual behind the scenes with the professional elite as witness and judge. Today it is a public spectacle combining the attraction of chess and mud wrestling. (Cronbach, 1988, p. 3)

Both our evaluation of practice analysis research and our professional experience …

5. Systematic Item Writing And Test Construction, Anthony Laduca, Steven M. Downing, Thomas R. Henzel

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Standardized objective testing remains the most popular mode of licensure testing. Even where other types of tests are incorporated, it is often the case that they are provided as complimentary to standardized, multiple-choice (MC) tests. Moreover, scoring theories and standard-setting procedures have been developed over the years in the context of standardized MC testing. At the same time, critics have pointed to limitations of contemporary MC testing practices, including lack of fidelity to real-life challenges and emphasis on recall of factual minutiae. In our view, testing professionals should make conscientious attempts to modify test development procedures so as to address …

3. Policy Issues With Psychometric Implications, Michael Rosenfeld, Richard F. J. Tannenbaum, Scott Wesley

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Testing candidates with disabilities, testing repeaters, and coaching involve issues of fairness, the validity of the inferences made from test scores, and protection of the public. Licensing boards must develop policies to deal with each of these issues. It is interesting to note that although all three are of concern to licensing agencies, little of the research on these topics has been conducted in licensure settings. This chapter discusses the results of research conducted on each topic, considers the psychometric implications for policy of each, and suggests steps licensing boards can take when formulating policy.

TESTING CANDIDATES WITH DISABILITIES IN …

Section Three Emerging Practices

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

No abstract provided.

8. Item Banking, Betty A. Bergstrom, Richard C. Gershon

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Item banks developed by licensure agencies range from a collection of items stored on index cards to highly sophisticated electronic databases. Regardless of the storage mechanism, most banks contain items that have been organized and referenced according to procedures established by the licensure agency. This chapter outlines useful practices for building and maintaining a computerized item bank. We address storage of item text, graphics, and statistical history. We deal with the creation of paper-and-pencil and computerized tests from an item bank and the use of Item Response Theory (lRT) to calibrate and equate item banks. New directions in item banking …

12. Computerized Testing In Licensure, C. David Vale

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Computerized testing has come out of the laboratory and into the field. By rough estimates, over a million licensure and certification examinations are currently given by computer each year, and the number is rising. Computerized testing is not appropriate for every application, however. Computerized tests always result in significantly greater direct costs than paper-and-pencil tests. To justify their use, a computerized test must result in a net dollar saving. This means that something in the process of computerization must offer a cost reduction that more than offsets the direct cost of computerization. The purpose of this chapter is to identify …

9. Differential Item Functioning In Licensure Tests, Barbara S. Plake

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

When test scores are used to make important decisions, as is typically the case with licensure tests, the validity of test score interpretations is extremely critical. The validity of the decision (e.g., pass or fail the licensure examination) relies heavily on the validity of the test score that is used in making the licensure decision. So, although validity is always a critical component in test score interpretation, it has increased importance when the score is used in high-stakes decision situations such as licensure testing.

Issues in validity for licensure tests have been addressed in Chapter 4 of this volume. The …

13. Future Psychometric Practices In Licensure Testing, Steven S. Nettles

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

New technologies continue to emerge each year, and influence testing practices. In particular, in the last 10 years the personal computer has evolved from a curious and minimally useful tool to an indispensable partner in many certification and licensure testing programs. It is involved in every aspect- including candidate scheduling, test assembly, test administration, test scoring and analysis, and score reporting. Initially, it is used to determine the content to be included in the job analysis instrument, and later, to analyze the returned surveys. After the job analysis is completed and test specifications prepared, it can be used to bank …

11. Equating, Judy A. Shea, John J. Norcini

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

Testing programs nearly always need examinations that measure the same thing, but are composed of different questions (i .e., alternate forms of the same test). When different questions are used, however, there is no assurance that scores on the forms are equivalent; different sets of items might be easier or harder and, therefore, produce higher or lower scores. Equating is used to overcome this problem. Simply stated, it is the design and statistical procedure that permits scores on one form of a test to be comparable to scores on an alternate form.

A hypothetical example will help explain why …

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices [Complete Work], James C. Impara, Linda L. Murphy

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices (374 pages)

Copyright © 1995 by Buros Institute of Mental Measurements All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Buros Institute of Mental Measurements 135 Bancroft Hall University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0348

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Koinonia, Marcia B. Baxter Magolda, Rob Thompson, Becky Leithold

Koinonia

The Epistemological Development of College Students, Marcia B. Baxter Magolda

President's Corner, The Editor's Disk

CoCCA: Marketing Your Student Leadership Experience & Hot Ideas

Making Your Own RA Manual

Great Lakes Regional Conference