The Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Placement Test will be used as the posttest for the purpose of this study. The purpose of this test is to measure students' comprehension achievement on selected passages as developed on the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Placement Test. The test consists of 50 matching questions. Its measure of stability has been shown to be 0.85. The authors of the test relied on expert judgement to develop content validity. Adequate reliability and validity show this test to be a useful measure of comprehension achievement.
For this study, the Glencoe Final Examination will be given for the pretest and posttest. This test is designed to measure students' math achievement in the areas of number theory, fractions, decimals, percent, measurement, geometry, and equations, as developed during the course of the school year using the Glencoe textbook. This test consists of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered during one 55-minute class period. The authors of the test relied on expert judgement to ensure content validity. Its measure of test-retest reliability has been established to be 0.87. This is a practical measure of math achievement as shown through its established reliability and validity.
Comprehension of wetland ecology principles will be measured using a researcher-constructed test. The instrument consists of 50 objective questions that will include 25 multiple choice, 20 matching, and 5 true or false questions. A pretest will be administered before the unit and the same version will be administered as a posttest after the unit. This will establish test-retest reliability by showing stability over time. Samples of notes, class assignments, quizzes, and lab reports will be compared to the researcher-constructed test to ensure content validity.
The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory will be given in a test-retest method. It will be administered before therapy begins and again after therapy is concluded. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory is a 58 item paper and pencil test of self-attitudes in four areas: (a) social-self-peer (8 items), (b) home-parents (8 items), (c) school-academic (8 items), and (d) general (26 items). A total self-esteem score is obtained by adding together the high self-esteem responses on the four sub-scales and doubling the score. It is suitable for use with children ages 8-17 and requires approximately 15 minutes for students to take. Reliability has been assessed at several grade levels with all indicating coefficients in excess of 0.80, which is considered adequate for this type of instrument. Nothing was found on the validity of this instrument.
The researcher will create the instrument used in this study. It will be a survey that will determine the participant's math anxiety level. It will use a Likert scoring procedure. A low score will reflect a low level of anxiety towards math, and a high score will reflect a high level of anxiety towards math. Before the study is conducted, the researcher will pilot the instrument to determine the reliability and validity. The researcher will also use the coefficient alpha to determine the level of internal consistency for this instrument.
The instrument used in this study is the Test Anxiety Scale, a 37 true,false item index used by researchers to measure test anxiety. The total number of true answers is the test anxiety score. A score of 12 or below ranks in the low anxiety range. A score of 12-20 ranks in the medium range and a score above 20 signifies high test anxiety. The Test Anxiety Scale has a split-half reliability of 0.91 and a test-retest reliability of 0.82 over a 6-week period (Sarason & Mandler, 1958). Colleagues will review the test to establish construct validity.
The Computer Makes You Smarter Test (CMYST) is designed to identify pre and post data related to using the computer to enhance learning of language arts and math skills. The intended population for CMYST is kindergarten children. The test used a multiple choice format. Reading questions focus on alphabet sight and sound recognition, sight word recognition, and sentence structure. The test contains 20 questions and takes approximately 45 to administer. This test has been shown to be reliable and valid. It has an internal consistency coefficient of 0.94. A test-retest coefficient of 0.90 was determined across a 5-day delay. The test had been used for approximately 10 years and has a high rate of content validity based on consistent methods of teaching reading skills with computer enrichment and by the expert knowledge of colleagues who also use the computer for enrichment purposes.
The instrument that will be used to measure the effectiveness of the treatment will be Method 1664, Revision A: N-Hexane Extractable Material and Silica Gel Treated N-Hexane Extractable Material by Extraction and Gravimetry taken from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Water. This method is for determination of n-hexane extractable material (HEM; oil and grease) and n-hexane extractable material that is not absorbed by silica gel in surface and saline waters and industrial and domestic aqueous wastes. This is the only approved EPA method. The reliability and validity of this process will be determined at the time of analysis using spiked samples.