Search

In this study, retrospective interviews were used to investigate reliability (and thus validity) threats to a computerized ESL listening comprehension test administered at a university in the US. The participants in the investigation, six international graduate students, were asked to respond to semi- and open-ended questions during individual interviews. Their responses were used to confirm a model of potential sources of systematic and random error variance and to generate ideas about unanticipated sources of systematic and random error variance for further investigation. The results suggested that the specific retrospective interview methodology proposed in the report was useful, dependable, and credible in generating broad based, yet focused information specific to the use of a particular test. Based on the results, further areas of research into the inescapable and complex issues of test-taker attributes as they interact with test method and conditions were suggested. (Contains 6 tables.)

This article reports on a 2-phase study to revise the Hispanic Stress Inventory (HSI; Cervantes, Padilla, & Salgado de Snyder, 1991). The necessity for a revised stress-assessment instrument was determined by demographic and political shifts affecting Latin American immigrants and later-generation Hispanics in the United States in the 2 decades since the development of the HSI. The data for the revision of the HSI (termed the HSI2) was collected at 4 sites: Los Angeles, El Paso, Miami, and Boston, and included 941 immigrants and 575 U.S.-born Hispanics and a diverse population of Hispanic subgroups. The immigrant version of the HSI2 includes 10 stress subscales, whereas the U.S.-born version includes 6 stress subscales. Both versions of the HSI2 are shown to possess satisfactory Cronbach's alpha reliabilities and demonstrate expert-based content validity, as well as concurrent validity when correlated with subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). The new HSI2 instruments are recommended for use by clinicians and researchers interested in assessing psychosocial stress among diverse Hispanic populations of various ethnic subgroups, age groups, and geographic location. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) relied heavily on the test development process used for the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) in its defense presented during the GI Forum v. Texas Education Agency (1999) litigation. In this article, we present the Texas test development process. The process spans 3 years of assessment development that includes the 2 general areas of planning and maintenance activities. Each step of both the planning and maintenance stages is described in detail. In addition, each step of the process is either explicitly or implicitly linked to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 1985). The routine use of this process by TEA and its contractors (as well as the process itself) provided strong evidence of both content and curricular validity of the TAAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an article published in Toxicology and Industrial Health, Volume 14, Number 6, pp. 829–842, Legator et al. present results of a symptom survey they conducted in the city of Midlothian, Texas. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) offers a commentary regarding the use of a symptom survey to evaluate the health status of the residents of Midlothian, and concerns regarding the limitations of the survey. The TNRCC was provided a unique opportunity to review the data collected during the survey and to participate in the oral deposition of Dr. Marvin Legator, the principal investigator, who discussed the results during a deposition related to an administrative hearing regarding permitting one of the three operating cement companies in Midlothian. The TNRCC is able to offer a perspective of this symptom survey that may not be apparent to the casual reader or peer reviewer. There are numerous issues that the TNRCC has identified in their review of the authors' symptom survey; however, we limit our commentary to issues that are the most salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]