Instruments

Displaying 1 - 47 of 47

Accuplacer is College Board’s suite of online tests in reading, writing, and math used for placing college students in coursework that is appropriate for their preparation level. In 2016, Accuplacer was redesigned to align with the content assessed by the SAT exams as well as with the skills important for college readiness. 

The Accuplacer suite includes:
1. The Reading test focusing on four domains: information and ideas, rhetoric, synthesis, and vocabulary;
2. The Writing test focusing on two domains: expression of ideas and standard English conventions;
3. The Math test that is aligned with state college and career readiness standards;
4. The WritePlacer and WitePlacer ESL tests evaluating students’ essay writing;
5. The Accuplacer ESL test that helps place ESL and EFL students in appropriate language courses.  

All Accuplacer tests except for the WritePlacer are multiple choice.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The ACT is a standardized college admission exam. It measures high school students’ readiness for college and career success by focusing on key content areas such as English, math, reading, and science (with the optional writing section). Multiple-choice questions are used in the English, math, reading, and science sections, and scores are converted into a composite score between 1 and 36. 

ACT also provides score interpretations based on its College and Career Readiness Standards, which can provide secondary schools with information to improve instruction. Furthermore, ACT scores can be compared against College Readiness Benchmarks to determine whether students meet the minimum requirements for college success.

Year developed: 1959.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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ACT’s Engage assessments measure motivational, skill, social engagement, and self-regulatory constructs related to academic performance in college. 

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary

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The Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2.1) is a 40-item self-reporting inventory that measures parental behaviors and is commonly used to assess the risk of child abuse and neglect. The AAPI-2.1 provides five subscales: expectations of children, parental empathy towards children's needs, use of corporal punishment, parent-child family roles, and children's power and independence. The instrument is offered in English, Spanish, Creole, and Arabic.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire is a 42-item self-reporting instrument that focuses on positive involvement with children, supervision and monitoring, use of positive discipline techniques, consistency in the use of discipline, and corporal punishment use. The instrument, designed for parents with children 6-18 years of age, can be used for pre- and post-treatment and is offered in both English and Spanish.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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CampusReady is an instrument that examines schools’ strengths and weaknesses in preparing students for college. Originally known as the CollegeCareerReady School Diagnostic when it was first introduced in 2009, CampusReady utilizes David Conley’s Four Keys to College and Career Readiness, which comprise cognitive strategies, content knowledge, academic behaviors, and contextual skills and awareness. CampusReady target respondents are students in grades 6-12, teachers, counselors, and administrators. 

CampusReady generates four comprehensive reports: the Participant Information Report, which gathers data on participants; the Aspirations Report, which focuses on students’ future plans; the Four Keys to College and Career Readiness Report, which evaluates college readiness across the four dimensions of David Conley’s model; and the Targeted Recommendations Report, which provides customized recommendations for the school or district that utilized CampusReady. These reports serve as valuable resources for schools and districts seeking to improve their college readiness strategies by fostering students’ knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Additionally, schools gain access to a database of effective interventions targeting college readiness.

Year developed: 2013 in its current version, 2009 as CollegeCareerReady School Diagnostic. 

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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Initially intended to assess the impact of a career planning program at a gifted and talented baccalaureate magnet high school in a Southeastern city, the College and Career Readiness Self-Efficacy Inventory (CCRSI) is a tool that measures an individual's belief in their ability to enter a career pathway and be successful in higher education settings. The CCRSI contains 14 statements that ask about one's confidence in performing behaviors that are important for college and career readiness, covering four main factors: College Knowledge, Positive Personal Characteristics, Academic Competence, and Potential to Achieve Future Goals. The scale uses a Likert scale ranging from “5: strongly agree” to “1: strongly disagree,” and the CCRSI’s overall score ranges from 14 (low) to 70 (high).

Year developed: 2012.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS) is an instrument that measures parent and caregiver behaviors and interactions with children. The instrument consists of 26 items focused on sensitivity, harshness, detachment, and permissiveness. CIS was created in 1989 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and used in the evaluation of North Carolina’s Smart Start Initiative.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The CARE-Index is an observation instrument that measures mother-child interaction and is designed for children ages birth to 2 years. The instrument, which requires a short videotaped play interaction, provides sensitivity, control and unresponsiveness subscales for mothers and cooperativeness, compulsivity, difficultness, and passivity subscales for children.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Child Caregiver Interaction Scale (CCIS), Revised Edition is an observation-based instrument created by Dr. Barbara Carl, Ph.D that assesses caregiver-child interaction. The 14 items are based upon the Developmentally Appropriate Practice position statements of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) and the National Health and Safety Performance Standards. The CCIS, which measures emotional, cognitive/physical, and social behaviors, is appropriate for children from birth to 5 years.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS) is an instrument developed at University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and Human Development that assesses parents’ views of their relationship with their child. Created by Dr. Robert Pianta, Ph.D., the instrument consists of 30 items. There is also a short form with 15 items available.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) developed the Freshman Survey for collecting data on incoming college freshmen. The CIRP Freshman Survey focuses on the following domains: established behaviors in high school, academic preparedness, admissions decisions, expectations of college, interactions with peers and faculty, student values and goals, student demographic characteristics, and concerns about financing college. 

Year developed: 1966.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The College Academic Self-Efficacy Scales (CASES) measures college students’ self-reported academic self-efficacy. CASES asks respondents to rate their confidence in various college activities such as note-taking, asking questions, writing, and class attendance. CASES has 33 items using a 5-points Likert scale ranging from 0 “very little confidence” to 4 “quite a lot of confidence”.

Year developed: 1988.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The College Readiness Assessment (CRA) is a learning progression-based measure of the trajectory of students’ abilities to connect representations of mathematical functions in grades 6-12. As a formative assessment building on cognitive research in mathematics learning, the CRA aims to help students transition smoothly from middle school to college-level math coursework. In contrast to other college readiness tests, which focus on quantitatively scoring the correctness of students’ answers, the CRA uses multi-level items to measure students’ mathematical proficiency from a cognitive perspective. CRA’s six levels of progression intend to show how students’ mathematical understanding and thinking developed rather than how correctly students answered the questions. CRA’s applicability to socioculturally diverse contexts has not been studied extensively.

Year developed: 2011.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The College Readiness for Global Campus Survey was developed by Lee et al. (2019) to explore the college readiness of US and international undergraduate students. College readiness measures of the College Readiness for Global Campus Survey focus on two domains: academic readiness and sociocultural readiness. The academic readiness domain includes academic competencies such as critical thinking, problem-solving, computing skills, note-taking, presentation and test-taking skills, reading, writing, and mastery in subject areas. The sociocultural readiness domain includes 11 sociocultural competencies: collaboration and teamwork, commitment to learning, understanding college and career paths, responsibility, academic integrity, communication, creativity, independence, help-seeking, balancing multiple demands, and multicultural competence. The survey uses Likert-type questions ranging from 1 “none” to 5 “excellent”. 

Year developed: 2019.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The College Readiness Scale (CRS) was designed to measure college readiness for teenagers with ADHD. It is a self-report measure focusing on behaviors related to college readiness (Maitland & Quinn, 2011). The 43-item scale has three subscales:

  1. Self-determination, including self-knowledge, communication skills, and self-management (15 items).
  2. Daily living skills, including self-care, organization, and time management (13 items).
  3. Academic skills, including self-knowledge, study skills, and time management for academic tasks (15 items).

The Likert-scale items range from 0 “never/not at all” to 4 “very often/very true.” The internal reliability of the CRS is .95. 

 

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The College Survival and Success Scale (CSSC) measures noncognitive college readiness. First designed in 2006 and in the 2nd edition since 2011, the subscales that CSSC assesses include:

  • Commitment to education.
  • Self- and resource-management skills.
  • Interpersonal and social skills.
  • Academic success skills.
  • Career planning skills.

Items are Likert-type, with response options ranging from “a lot like me” to “not like me.”

Year developed: 2006 (2nd edition since 2011).

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary

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The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) is a system that assesses parent-child interactions. The instrument can be used to measure ongoing progress as well as pre- and post-treatment outcomes. The DPICS can be completed in under an hour without video equipment.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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California’s Early Assessment Program (EAP) consists of three parts: college readiness testing in 11th grade, academic preparation in 12th grade, and teacher professional development. EAP’s standardized math and English assessments measure high school juniors’ readiness for college-level work at California State University (CSU) campuses. Based on these assessments, EAP classifies students into four levels: 1) standard not met, 2) standard nearly met, 3) standard met, and 4) standard exceeded. Students taking EAP assessments receive information about their college readiness. If they are deemed unprepared for college, they can enroll in remedial courses in 12th grade and participate in the Early Start preparation program in the summer before enrolling in CSU or participating community colleges. The EAP assessments are administered as part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests in the spring semester of 11th grade.

Year developed: 2004.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 11th Grade

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The Emotional Availability Scales (EA Scales) measures the quality of parent-child or adult-child interactions. Emotional availability refers to “the adult’s ‘receptive presence’ to the child’s emotional signals” (Biringen and Easterbrooks, 2012). Created by Dr. Zeynep Biringen, Ph.D., in 1987, the instrument is currently in its 4th edition. The EA Scales consist of both adult and child subscales and can be completed in approximately 20 minutes.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Family Empowerment Scale (FES) measures empowerment in families whose children have emotional disabilities. The 34 items of the FES questionnaire focus on the level of empowerment (with respect to the family, service system, and larger community and political environment) and the way empowerment is expressed (attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors).

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Healthy Families Parenting Inventory (HFPI) is a self-reporting instrument that measures nine parenting domains: social support, problem-solving, depression, personal care, mobilizing resources, role satisfaction, parent/child interaction, home environment, and parenting efficacy. The instrument, which contains 63 items, is often used for assessing home visitation early childhood programs.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale (KIPS) is an observation-based instrument that assesses parent-child interaction during play. The instrument has been rated “A-Reliability and Validity Demonstrated” by California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse and recommended by Parents As Teachers, Healthy Families America, SafeCare, and WAVE Trust & Department for Education, United Kingdom. The observation portion of KIPS, which helps measure 12 key parenting behaviors, can be completed in 15 minutes, while scoring takes approximately 20 minutes.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) measures college students’ learning and study strategies. It can be used for screening to identify students at risk of poor academic achievement and for diagnostics to examine strengths and weaknesses and provide focused remediation. 

Now in its third edition, LASSI includes 60 items mapping onto ten scales (Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient in parentheses for every scale): Anxiety (.87), Attitude (.76), Concentration (.85), Information Processing (.81), Motivation (.77), Selecting Main Ideas (.86), Self Testing (.80), Test Strategies (.77), Time Management (.80), and Using Academic Resources (.76).

Year developed: LASSI 1st edition: 1987, LASSI 2nd edition: 2002; LASSI 3rd edition: 2016

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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Developed by Hung et al. (2010) and validated on a sample of Taiwanese college students, the Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS) explores five dimensions of readiness to study online: self-directed learning, learner control, motivation for learning, computer/Internet self-efficacy, and online communication self-efficacy. 

Year developed: 2010.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The Parent Behavior Checklist (PBC) is a self-reporting instrument designed for parents with children 1-4 years years old. The instrument, which only takes 10-20 minutes to complete, provides expectations, nurturing, and discipline subscales.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parent Education Profile (PEP) is a 75-item observation instrument that measures 15 subdomains. The instrument, which is designed for children from birth to 8 years old, measures parents' behavior related to children's literacy skills. The PEP is available in both English and Spanish.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI) is a self-reporting instrument that assess parents' beliefs about the frequency, quality, and importance of their child's literacy activities. The 42-item instrument provides seven subscales: positive affect, verbal participation, resources, teaching efficacy, knowledge base, environmental input, and reading instruction.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parent Success Indicator (PSI) is a self-reporting instrument that assess parental behavior, specifically related to communication, use of time, teaching, frustration, satisfaction, and information needs. The PSI is designed for parents with children 10-14 years of age and offers a child survey as well. English and Spanish versions of the instrument are available.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) is an instrument for parents to assess their relationship with their children. The instrument, which contains 78 items, has been standardized on over 1,100 parents in the United States. The PCRI can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool (PIRAT) is an observation instrument that rates parent-child interactions for children ages birth to 2 years. The PIRAT measures optimal parental behavior and can be used as a risk assessment by health professionals. The instrument was developed as part of the Parent-Infant Project at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO™) is an observation instrument that covers four parenting behavior domains: affection, responsiveness, encouragement, and teaching. The instrument is designed for children from 10 months to 4 years old and is available in both English and Spanish.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC) is a self-reporting instrument that measures and assesses parent self-efficacy. The instrument, designed for parents with children birth-17 years of age, was originally developed by Gibaud-Wallston and Wandersman (1978) with skill knowledge and value competence subscales but has been translated and revised by Johnston and Marsh (1989) for use with older children.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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Perceptions, Expectations, Emotions, and Knowledge about College (PEEK) is a diagnostic instrument focused on student ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of college. PEEK’s 30 items use a 5-point rating scale (from “not at all likely” to “extremely likely”) to assess students’ academic, personal, and social expectations. Such measurement could potentially assist students in forming more precise perceptions of their college surroundings and potentially prevent disengagement and dropout from college. 

Year developed: 1995.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 12th Grade, Post secondary

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The postsecondary education-going access aspirations (PEG-AA) scale proposed by Martinez et al. (2017) focuses on students’ ability to sustain hopes and dreams for the future despite real or perceived barriers. PEG-AA has 14 Likert-type questions (from 1 “not important” to 3 “very important”) on college aspirations, resilience, and expectations.  In a sample of 163 students, PEG-AA’s alpha reliability coefficient was .69 (Martinez et al., 2017).

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The postsecondary education-going knowledge (PEG-K) scale developed by Martinez et al. (2017) focuses on the knowledge of various requirements for applying and enrolling in college. PEG-K has 46 true-false questions on three domains: access, preparedness/readiness, and affordability. In a sample of 163 students, PEG-K’s alpha reliability coefficient was .93 (Martinez et al., 2017).

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The Readiness and Expectations Questionnaire (REQ) is a researcher-designed instrument for measuring first-year postsecondary students’ expectations and preparedness for studying in college (Jansen et al., 2013; Jansen & van der Meer, 2007). 

In the domain of student expectations, the REQ focuses on the expectations to be inducted by teachers, be involved in research or be told about research activities, that university will be similar to high school, and that they need time-management skills. 

In the college readiness domain, the REQ measures students’ perceived readiness in information processing, collaborative learning, time management, and writing.

Year developed: 2006.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The SAT is a college entrance exam by the College Board. The SAT has three sections: math test, reading test, and writing and language test. 

Year developed: 1926.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The Student Athlete Pre-Screening Questionnaire (SA-PSQ) is a tool for evaluating the college readiness of student athletes. It is derived from the CollegeCareerReady™ School Diagnostic, which assesses four key areas of college readiness, including cognitive strategies, content knowledge, learning skills and techniques, and transition knowledge and skills. The SA-PSQ measure is predictive of college GPA and probation status, and it has also been shown to account for a distinct variation in college readiness knowledge and skills beyond typical demographic factors and academic preparation variables such as high school GPA and SAT scores (Lombardi et al., 2012).

Year developed: 2012.

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The Texas Success Initiative Assessment 2.0 (TSIA2) was introduced in 2021, replacing the previous version utilized since 2013. As per the Texas State Legislature mandate, all students entering Texas public higher education institutions must undergo TSIA2 or qualify for one of its exemptions. The TSIA2 evaluates students' readiness for college-level coursework by testing them in English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) and Mathematics. 

In ELAR, TSIA2 focuses on two key areas: reading and writing. The reading portion assesses comprehension and analysis of literary, informational, and argumentative texts, including paired passages. Meanwhile, the writing portion evaluates skills in revising and editing sentences, paragraphs, and early drafts of essays.

In mathematics, TSIA2 focuses on four key areas: quantitative reasoning, algebraic reasoning, geometric and spatial reasoning, and probabilistic and statistical reasoning. 

Students taking the TSIA2 begin by completing College Readiness Classification (CRC) tests in ELAR and mathematics, comprising multiple-choice questions. If students fail to meet the college readiness benchmarks on these CRC tests, they proceed with the multiple-choice diagnostic tests in ELAR and Mathematics. These diagnostic tests present an additional chance for the students to demonstrate their preparedness for college-level coursework. They also highlight students' strengths and weaknesses in specific content areas, thus facilitating their placement into suitable courses and enabling them to receive the necessary remedial support and interventions.

Year developed: 2021 (TSIA2 replaced TSIA introduced in 2013).

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: Post secondary

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The Cleminshaw-Guidubaldi Parent Satisfaction Scale is a 50-item self-reporting instrument that measures satisfaction with child-rearing skills. The instrument, which is designed for parents with children birth-18 years of age, contains five subscales: spouse support, child-parent relationship, parent performance, family discipline and control, and general satisfaction subscales.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Cornell Cooperative Extension Parent Education Data Collection System is a tool used for Cornell Cooperative Extension parenting education classes. Items on the pre- and post- surveys are taken from national surveys such as the Three Cities Study and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to ensure validity and reliability. The instrument has been utilized to evaluate Home Visitation Programs, Incredible Years Program, Magic Years Program, and the Strengthening Families Program in New York state.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Home Observation Measurement of the Environment-Short Form (HOME-SF) is an observation instrument commonly used to measure the home environment of children ages birth to 15 years old. The HOME-SF is an abridged version of the HOME inventory, which is twice the length, and contains mother-reported items. The HOME-SF provides cognitive stimulation and emotional support subscores along with the total score.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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ThinkReady is an instrument measuring the development of cognitive competencies that students need for college success. Previously known as College-Readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS), ThinkReady focuses on David Conley’s Key Cognitive Strategies for college and career readiness: problem formulation, research, interpretation, communication, and precision/accuracy. These cognitive strategies are measured via a series of performance tasks.

Year developed: 2009 as College-Readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS).

Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills

Sub-Category: College Readiness

Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

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The Tool to Measure Parenting Self-Efficacy (TOPSE) is a UK-developed instrument that assesses six parenting domains: emotion and affection, play and enjoyment, empathy and understanding, control, discipline and boundary setting, pressures of parenting self-acceptance and learning and knowledge. The instrument is designed to be completed on the first session and last session of a parenting program.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The University of Idaho Survey of Parenting Practice (UISPP) is a self-reporting instrument that parents can complete to measure the effect of a parenting education program. The UISPP was created for the purpose of the "Parents as Teachers" program and assesses the knowledge, confidence, skills, and behaviors of parents. The instrument is available in both English and Spanish.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

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The Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI) is a self-report instrument that measures the level of burden that principal caregivers experience. Originally developed for caregivers of persons with dementia, ZBI is now used with various types of caregivers, including parents of children with health, behavioral, and developmental problems. The current full version, ZBI-22, has 22 items, each using a 5-point Likert-type scale. Shorter versions exist; see Yu et al. (2019) in the psychometric references below.

Category: Home and Community

Sub-Category: Parenting

Grades: < 3 Years, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary

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