Installing a System of Performance Standards for National Assessments in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago: Issues and Challenges

This article explores the challenge of setting performance standards in a non-Western context. The study is centered on standard-setting practice in the national learning assessments of Trinidad and Tobago. Quantitative and qualitative data from annual evaluations between 2005 and 2009 were compiled, analyzed, and deconstructed. In the mixed methods research design, data were integrated under an evaluation framework for validating performance standards. The quantitative data included panelists’ judgments across standard-setting rounds and methods. The qualitative data included both retrospective comments from open-ended surveys and real-time data from reflective diaries. Findings for procedural and internal validity were mixed, but the evidence for external validity suggested that the final outcomes were reasonable and defensible. Nevertheless, the real-time qualitative data from the reflective diaries highlighted several cognitive challenges experienced by panelists that may have impinged on procedural and internal validity. Additional unique hindrances were lack of resources and wide variation in achievement scores. Ensuring a sustainable system of performance standards requires attention to these deficits.     

Blocking as a function of added cue intensity

Twelve rats were initially trained to leverpress for water in the presence of a tone. Responses in the absence of the tone were never reinforced. Following this pretraining, a novel light cue was simultaneously compounded with all presentations of the tone as a relevant but redundant predictor of reinforcement. For three different groups of subjects, the light cue was of either bright, moderate, or dim intensity. After compound training, all subjects experienced nonreinforced presentations of each of the two components of the compound. Results indicated that the relative degree of control exerted by the light over behavior increased with increases in light (added cue) intensity.     

What Early Childhood Educators Need to Know About Divorced Fathers

Early childhood professionals can play an important role in helping divorced fathers to be more involved in the lives of their children. They can include involving fathers in all school and classroom activities from parent conferences to class celebrations. Educators can also serve as child care consultants to help fathers become better caretakers. By taking these measures, teachers will not only improve the emotional health of children and their fathers, but will also improve the educational experiences of children     

Relationship between PPVT and WISC-R in children with reading disabilities

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), Form A was compared to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) in two samples of children with reading disabilities. One group of 14 children, referred to a university clinic, were administered the WISC-R, followed by the PPVT. The second group of 38 children from a private learning disability center were administered the PPVT first, followed by the WISC-R. In the combined sample, the PPVT IQ (X̄ = 109.2) was significantly higher than the WISC-R Verbal IQ (X̄ = 98.9), Performance IQ (X̄ = 97.0), and Full Scale IQ (X̄ = 97.5). Similarly, the PPVT IQ was significantly higher than the WISC-R Full Scale in both samples separately, regardless of which test was administered first. In one case, the PPVT IQ was 50 points higher than the WISC-R IQ. Correlations between the PPVT and WISC-R Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs were significant (rs = .56, .29, and .50, respectively). The results suggest that the two tests do not provide interchangeable IQs for a population of reading disabled children.     

Comparison of California Test of Mental Maturity and WISC-R IQs among children suspected of being EMR or LD

The California Test of Mental Maturity, Short Form (CTMM-SF) and the WISC-R were compared in a sample of black and white children, ages 6-8 to 15-2 years, referred for learning problems. A 2 × 2 mixed ANOVA (Ethnicity and Test) indicated that ethnicity was the only significant effect, with black children obtaining lower scores than white children. All correlations between the two tests were significant, although they were higher for white children than for black children. The results indicate that the CTMM-SF has adequate criterion-related validity.     

Parental estimates of children's receptive vocabulary

Samples of 13 mothers and fathers of normal preschool children and 11 mothers of high-risk preschool children estimated their children's vocabulary ability by predicting their child's responses to individual PPVT-R items and by making a global rating of their child's vocabulary ability. Prior to the parental estimations, the children had been administered the PPVT-R. Accuracy of parental estimates, as measured by d', was low, although the mothers' average estimates were significantly higher than zero and higher than fathers' estimates. Accuracy of estimation was similar for mothers of normal preschoolers and for mothers of high-risk preschoolers. Time spent reading to the child, mothers' employment, and children's ability level were not related to parental accuracy. Although correlations between the children's scores and parental estimates all were significant, parents tended to overestimate their children's abilities by approximately 9 to 10 points on the average. Overall, parental estimates of their children's vocabulary ability, using a global rating scale, provide a somewhat useful measure for placing their children in a broad classification range.     

Performance of bilingual and monolingual Hispanic children on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised and the McCarthy Perceptual Performance Scale

This study evaluated the receptive vocabulary ability and nonverbal cognitive ability of 20 monolingual (Spanish-speaking) and 11 bilingual (Spanish/English-speaking) Mexican-American preschool children, ages 45 to 65 months. The children obtained significantly lower scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) than on the Perceptual Performance Scale of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities. On both measures, the bilingual group obtained significantly higher scores than did the monolingual group. The results support prior recommendations that the PPVT-R not be used to estimate the intelligence level of Hispanic children.     

A longitudinal study of the WISC-R and WAIS-R with special education students

The relationship between the WISC-R and WAIS-R was studied in a sample of 30 special education children (22 male and 8 female). Children were administered the WISC-R at an average age of 13.85 years and the WAIS-R at an average age of 17.52 years. ANOVAs indicated that the two tests yielded Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQS that were not significantly different. For example, the mean Full Scale IQ was 81.13 for the WISC-R and 82.70 for the WAIS-R. Product-moment correlations also were highly significant, with rs ranging from .76 to .86 for the three scales. The results suggest that, for children of limited intelligence, the WISC-R and WAIS-R provide comparable IQs over a four-year time period.