Achievement tests, as well as self-report questionnaires, may provide reliable and valid results regardless of medium (e.g.paper-and-pencil vs. computerized testing) or mode (e.g. supervised vs. unsupervised testing) of test administration. However, because evidence is inconsistent and test-specific, it is recommended to review the equivalence of each assessment tool before applying it in various formats. Thus, the present study examines the equivalence of two information literacy measures by comparing their a) psychometric properties (internal consistencies, item-total correlations), b) means and standard deviations, and c) intercorrelations under different conditions. In an experimental study, educational students (n=141) completed a knowledge test which aims to assess individuals’ ability to find and evaluate scholarly information, and a questionnaire assessing information literacy related self-efficacy beliefs. Medium and mode of test administration were varied in a 2 x 2 between subjects design. Testing was conducted in a paper based or a computer based format either individually under supervision, or under uncontrolled conditions. While the self-efficacy scale yielded comparable results under the different experimental conditions, the knowledge test appeared to be more susceptible to variations of test administration. Results are discussed with respect to general differences in measurement equivalence of test versus questionnaire data.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the use of standardized achievement tests in preschool. Several researchers claim that the performance of young children is too fickle to be reliably and validly tested. The goal of this study was to examine the predictive validity for future performance and the score-stability of two widely administered Dutch preschool tests. Language and arithmetic scores of 431 children were collected retrospectively over a four-year period. First, percentile scores of low scoring children were plotted to assess the stability of scores over time. Second, predictive validity of arithmetic and language scores was assessed by means of a multilevel model. Both the language and arithmetic tests were poor identifiers for low scoring children in first and second grade. The majority of low scoring first and second graders achieved above average in preschool, or fluctuated between top and bottom range scores. A small group did not show large fluctuations in scores. Low correlations (r= .09 to .30) between the preschool tests and subsequent tests indicated that both tests are weakly to moderately associated with first and second grade performance. The results are discussed in light of practical applications of these tests.

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) is a set of assessment procedures designed to provide accurate and reliable, yet efficient, indicators of student performance in the basic skill areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. Educators use CBM for universal screening and progress monitoring supported by a number of studies establishing good reliability and validity and linking performance on the measures, particularly the oral reading measure, to performance on state-administered high stakes tests. Such a measurement system currently does not exist in Brazil, therefore teachers often rely on their informal measures of student performance to guide instruction, and school administrators and policymakers to guide programmatic decisions. The purpose of this session is to describe a cross-cultural project aimed at investigating the suitability of CBM for schools in Brazil. The paper presentation will include an overview of the education systems in the U.S. and Brazil and how CBM fits in. Results of some initial reliability and validity studies using two mathematics probes administered to a group of third-grade students will be presented, including test-retest and alternate-form reliability coefficients and exploratory factor analysis. Preliminary implications for implementation and plans for follow-up studies will be discussed.

Career exploration is a central process of childhood career development, sustaining an emerging sense of self and learning about life-roles and work. Self-report measures have been used with middle-school children, but often present theoretical and psychometric limitations, lacking evidence of temporal validity. This study examines the longitudinal factorial invariance of the Childhood Career Exploration Inventory (CCEI) over a 14-month period spinning fifth- and sixth-grades. The CCEI is a self-report measure of middle-school children’s career exploration, yielding scores for three subscales and total career exploration. Attrition did not rely on gender, region, or previous CCEI scores. Analyses were derived from a final data set of 437 Portuguese children of both genders (M(age) first wave = 10.23). A hierarchical factor model constituted the baseline model. Results suggested configural and metric invariance of the first- and second-order factors over time for genders. The CCEI presented acceptable reliability at each time and relative construct stability, except from the third to the fourth occurrences of measurement. These results support the use of the CCEI with girls and boys to investigate change in career exploration over fifth- and sixth-grades. Possible reasons for the relative construct instability from the third to the fourth occurrences of measurement are discussed.