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This review covers the test components of validity, reliability, job-relatedness, and test bias in relation to teacher licensing examinations and the legal decisions that have affected policy in this area. The literature provides a history of court decisions and legal rulings that have shaped policy, test design, and test use. The important criteria for implementing a fair and legal program of testing teachers for initial licensure are discussed, along with the guidelines that provide a framework for determining the proper use of tests and other selection procedures. Although the testing of teachers for initial licensure has been challenged on legal grounds purporting discrimination, the courts have upheld the practice of professional employment testing when tests are: (1) not used to discriminate; (2) shown to be job related; and (3) indicative of job qualifications and performance. Criterion-related tests that determine a teacher candidate's competency have become respectable tools for educational improvement. It is not easy to be well-informed about current legal practice with regard to professional licensure, but it is important. (Contains 26 references.) (SLD)

Whether a set of predictor variables could be identified from pre-enrollment and post-enrollment data that would differentiate students who advance to a major in engineering from those who do not was studied with students at Auburn University, Alabama. Also studied was whether predictors could be isolated that would identify students likely to graduate with another major and whether any relationship exists between the grades earned by students and 15 courses selected from the pre-engineering curriculum. Participants were 868 freshmen who entered as pre-engineering students over the course of 7 years. Variables used were high school total grade index, high school mathematics grade index, high school science grade index, high school humanities grade index, and first quarter college grade point average. Analyses indicated that first quarter college grade point average was a significant indicator in the prediction of success in higher education. In addition, high school grade indices also predict at a high rate. (Contains 30 references.) (SLD)

Beginning from general concepts of identity formation, this review of models of African American identity development proceeds to Marcia's expansion of Erikson's identity model and to Chickering's vector theory. DuBois's concept of "double identity" and Erikson's writings concerning "adaptive coping" in minorities are considered. Cross's "Nigrescence" model and related studies are reviewed. Recent models of acculturation, cross-cultural viewpoints, and culture-specific viewpoints are discussed. Models of Afrocentrism or "Africanity" are explored. Today's generation of adolescents and young adults are growing up in a more culturally diverse and integrated environment; their identity is linked to the experiences of the black community and affected by the dominant culture and other ethnic communities. Additional constructs are needed to assess healthy identity development in today's society; personal and environmental essentials are discussed. Themes that emerge from this review include the following: (1) Contemporary African American college students are strongly influenced by their families and community; (2) racial and ethnic relationships between other cultural and ethnic minorities as well as with white Americans are significant; and (3) an understanding of history is necessary to assess sufficiently African American identity development. African Americans have shared a challenging history; however, they have also demonstrated a remarkable collective resilience. A compilation of 13 identity, ethnic identity, racial identity, and student development theories is included. (EMK)

This study examined the academic and affective growth of peer mentors in a minority engineering program which encouraged relationships between freshmen pre-engineering students and upperclass division mentors at a large, land-grant university in the Southeast. A total of 14 mentors in a newly established minority mentoring program, who were themselves minorities, completed weekly journal entries on their experiences. One primary pattern that emerged from the journals was the reinforcement and improvement of the mentors' already existing academic skills that occurred as a result of their tutoring experiences in interactive learning laboratories and involvement in problem-solving workshops. The simple and constant review of fundamental principles common to the engineering core of study helped the mentors in their own academic pursuits. The journals also captured affective change in confidence and sense of purpose within the mentoring community. The results suggest that although the upperclass peer mentors were not the target population of the minority engineering program, they benefitted both academically and affectively from their roles as mentors within the program. An appendix provides the weekly prompts for journal entries. (MDM)

This study examined sex and age differences in elementary school students' perceptions of conflict and violence and of the effectiveness of various intervention strategies to resolve conflicts. A total of 51 third-graders, 75 fourth-graders, and 95 fifth-graders who had been trained by researchers to be peer mediators participated in the study. The students completed a 21-item questionnaire on their perceptions of conflict, violence, and ways to resolve conflict. The results indicated significant gender differences on 8 of the 21 items, with more girls than boys responding that they thought there was too much violence on television (72 percent versus 44 percent), tried to talk things over when there was a conflict (93 percent versus 79 percent), and tried to find out what the problem was when there was a conflict (92 percent versus 78 percent). More boys than girls thought that using violence proved that you are tough (16 percent versus 7 percent) and tried to hit the person with whom they were having the conflict (21 percent versus 10 percent). Few significant grade-level differences were found. (A copy of the questionnaire is appended.) (MDM)

This paper describes a qualitative study regarding the problem of retaining students in college engineering programs where roughly 50% of students drop out. The study focuses on interviews of students who participated in the pre-engineering program at Auburn University in Alabama. Twenty-four students were interviewed representing the sub-groups males and females, African Americans and Caucasians, as well as students persisting in engineering and those switching to another course of study. Deciding factors for "switching students" included program difficulty, study skills, coping skills, and a lack of familiarity with the work of an engineer. Factors for those "persisting" in engineering were intention to stay in engineering, determination, self-regulating behaviors, coping skills, grades and mental preparedness. Most students faced difficulties in the transition to a more academically challenging college program. Suggestions were made for the development of retention programs that would concentrate on helping students become better prepared mentally for the rigors of an engineering program and help students manage the transition to an engineering major. (Contains 19 references.) (AIM)

Whether different amounts of general job stress and stress related to the Alabama Performance-Based Accreditation Standards were experienced by teachers and principals was studied in a sample of 65 principals and 242 teachers from 9 Alabama school systems. All subjects completed the Alabama Performance-Based Accreditation Standards Stress Measure, and the Measure of Educator Stress, a general measure of job stress. Discriminant analysis was performed on the responses of 141 teachers and 39 principals. Teachers experienced more stress than principals, with largest sources of stress being job overload, relationships with students, salary and compensation, and subordinate-superordinate relationships. A performance-based accreditation system may be very helpful in school improvement, but to make its use less stressful, teachers should be extremely involved in plans for change. Staff development aimed at fostering a more internal locus of control should be promoted, with research to determine if changing the control orientation reduces stress. Five tables present analysis results. Forty-six references are included. (SLD)

Although the standard-setting method of W. H. Angoff (1971) has broad-based support in the research literature, inconsistencies in the resulting standards do occur. Sources of these inconsistencies are examined in a study of judges, competencies (items), rounds (replications), and the interactions among them. A modified Angoff approach was used to set standards on the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE), Second Edition. Thirty-four subject matter high school teachers (judges) convened to set standards for the AHSGE. Data from round-two estimates if made, or round-one estimates otherwise, were analyzed using three-way factorial analysis of variance, with judges, rounds, and competencies as independent variables. The analysis was repeated for reading, language, and mathematics. For language and mathematics, judges accounted for the largest amount of variability. For reading, competencies were the largest source of variability. Although variability was the focus, the high degree of agreement found is noted, lending credence to the standards set despite some variability. Three tables present study data, and a 15-item list of references is included. (SLD)

A review of the literature on the influence of testing on learning and retention reveals the need for more comprehensive research findings in this regard. This study was designed to investigate further the direct effects of tests in contrast with no tests on learning and retention in ongoing college-level classes with both the instructor and the students going about the daily business of teaching and learning. It probed further to determine if it was taking the test or studying for it or both which effected learning and retention if indeed such effects were replicable. Test type (multiple-choice and short answer) and item complexity (knowledge and concept) were also variables studied. Moving from the cognitive domain to the affective domain, this study focused on the students' feelings when they did/did not have to study for and take a test. Analyses of the resulting data showed that students who studied for and took a test not only achieved more but also retained their learning longer than students who "studied in order to learn than for a test." However, student ratings of construction were lower when students were tested. (Author/AL)

Forty-five graduate students in two educational psychology classes were randomly assigned to three groups for a classroom test on the course content. One group was asked to go to another room and then was privately excused from the test. The other two groups took tests with the same 32 items, but one group used a multiple-choice format and the other group a short answer format. Four weeks later, all three groups were given both forms of the same test (the short answer form first) on a unannounced basis. In this test one half the items were measures of knowledge and one half were measures of concepts. Resulting scores were analyzed using a 3x2x2 factorial analysis of variance design with repeated measures in the last two factors. The treatment effect was not significant. Scores were higher on the multiple-choice test than on the short-answer test. There also was a significant interaction between test format and question complexity (knowledge questions versus concept questions); that is, concept questions were comparatively easier in multiple-choice form and harder in completion form. (Author/CTM)

One purpose of this study was to compare the incremental effectiveness over high school grade point average (GPA) alone of the American College Testing Program (ACT) assessment, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and the California Achievement Tests (CAT) in predicting college freshman GPA. A second purpose was to look at the relative effectiveness of the high school GPA, the ACT, the SAT, and the CAT in predicting college freshman GPA. Data were collected from 1453 college freshman. High school grades predicted college GPA better than the ACT, the SAT, or the CAT. Each of the three tests provided an increase in predictive efficiency of 18.47 percent. The ACT, the SAT, and the CAT all possessed the same ineremental validity. (Author/BW)

A study was designed to investigate the validity and reliability of the adult Career Concerns Inventory, which assesses career concerns of adults of any age and occupation. Subjects, 4 male and 165 female students (ages 23 to 62) enrolled in the graduate nursing program at a southern university, were administered the adult Career Concerns Inventory (CCI) and the Career Development Inventory (CDI), which assesses the readiness of respondents to make sound vocational choices. The CCI focuses on the planfulness and exploration of D. E. Super's model of vocational or career maturity; it assesses exploration, establishment, maintenance, disengagement, and career change. The CDI is a multidimensional inventory focusing not only on the planning and exploration dimension of Super's model, but also on the additional dimensions of decision-making and information about the world of work. Data from responses underwent canonical correlation, stepwise multiple-regression analysis, and Pearson correlation and alpha reliability coefficients. Results support the validity of the CCI as a psychometric instrument. However, the CCI should be used in conjunction with other measures, such as the CDI. (TJH)

A study involving 169 graduate nursing students (4 males and 165 females) was conducted to assess the construct validity of the Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI). The ACCI is designed to assess career concerns of adults of any age and occupation. Focused on the "planfulness" and exploration factors of the theoretical model of vocational maturity developed by D. E. Super et al. (1988), the 65-item Likert scale instrument assesses respondents' career exploration, establishment, maintenance, disengagement, and change. Respondents to the mailed questionnaire included 102 female and two male students, aged 23 to 62 years. Factor loadings were developed for ACCI items using principal axis factoring and both varimax and oblique rotations were applied to the initial factor matrix. This study provides an example of rationally defined scales giving more interpretable information than statistically defined scales. Two data tables are included. (TJH)