Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales-Second Edition (PKBS-2)
Expert NotesStrengths:Easy to use, can be completed by teachers or parents, only takes 12 minutes to administer, widely used and validated in the ECLS-B.
Cautions:Only available for use with children ages 3 through 6 years, so not a good choice for studies with older children or longitudinal studies that go past kindergarten.
Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales–Second Edition (PKBS-2) is a behavior rating scale designed to assess young children’s social skills and problem behaviors. It provides a balanced view of both positive and challenging behaviors, making it useful for understanding children’s overall…Preschool Assessment of Science (PAS)
Expert NotesStrengths:Performance-based and structured as a sequence of prediction–observation–prediction tasks, allowing it to capture children’s scientific reasoning processes and how they revise their thinking based on evidence.
Cautions:Uses a relatively small number of items per task, which may limit reliability and the ability to capture the full range of children’s scientific understanding and variability in performance.
Topics: Student LearningThe Preschool Assessment of Science (PAS) is a performance-based assessment designed to measure preschool children’s science knowledge and inquiry skills through hands-on tasks. The instrument focuses on children’s ability to engage in a cycle of scientific reasoning, including making predictions,…Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale (PLBS)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student LearningTeachers rate children’s approaches to learning using the PLBS (PLBS; McDermott, Leigh, & Perry, 2002). In general, content focuses on attentiveness, responses to novelty and correction, observed problem‐solving strategy, flexibility, reflectivity, initiative, self‐direction, and cooperative…Preschool Program Quality Assessment, 2nd edition (PQA)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThe current revision of the PQA includes two notable differences from earlier versions: 1) the number of content areas has increased from four to seven, and 2) the scoring system has been revised to adequately measure the full range of quality along each quality construct. As described by the…Preschool Self‐Regulation Assessment (PSRA)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingSeveral observational tasks that show good value as denoting children’s ability to regulate emotions have been identified by Kochanska and colleagues. Radiah Smith‐Donald and Cybele Raver are now piloting a very clear, detailed use of such tasks, with specific measurement of the child’s…Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA)
Expert NotesStrengths:Easy to use, covers the relevant age range.
Cautions:Needs to be completed by an observer, not the teacher, so best included in the context of a larger set of direct assessments as a post-assessment rating.
Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) is a direct assessment designed to measure young children’s ability to manage their emotions, attention, and behavior in structured settings. It uses a short series of hands-on tasks and assessor observations to capture different aspects of self…Preservice Teacher Feedback Survey
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTags: Professional developmentThe Preservice Teacher Feedback Survey measures beliefs about classroom feedback practices and confidence in giving feedback to students. The measure is designed for use by preservice teachers to assess the extent to which their beliefs and confidence in giving feedback align with research on…Pride Learning Environment Survey
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Pride Learning Environment Survey is a comprehensive school climate survey designed for students in grades 6 to 12. This assessment measures aspects ranging from student-teacher relationships to student mental health and teacher involvement alone with several additional concepts. The Pride…Pride Teaching Environment
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Pride Teaching Environment Survey provides a context by which whole schools are measured. After undergoing more than three years of psychometric testing of responses drawn from 72,000 teachers, the data produced by this comprehensive school climate survey has been found proven and valid to help…Problem Solving Inventory
Expert NotesStrengths:Strong reliability; validated primarily with U.S. college students for assessing perceived problem-solving ability. Useful for examining relationships between perceived problem-solving ability and psychological adjustment, coping, and related outcomes.
Cautions:Limited evidence for younger students and non-U.S. populations.
Topics: Student LearningTags: College readinessThe Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) is a 32-item survey instrument. It measures how individuals perceive their own real-life, personal problem-solving abilities. The scale is structured around three key dimensions: Problem-solving confidence: An individual's belief and trust in their ability to…Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Expert NotesStrengths:Internationally benchmarked measure of students’ scientific literacy
Emphasizes application of science knowledge to real-world contexts
Enables cross-national and trend comparisons over time
Cautions:Designed for system-level monitoring rather than classroom or student diagnosis
Limited alignment with specific national curricula or instructional goals
Snapshot assessment that does not capture learning processes or instruction
Topics: Student Well-BeingTags: Science educationThe Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a large-scale international assessment developed by the OECD to measure 15-year-old students’ knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics, and science. The assessment includes a mix of multiple-choice and constructed-response items, with…Progression of Understanding Matter (PUM)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student LearningThe Progression of Understanding Matter (PUM) is an assessment instrument designed to measure students’ conceptual understanding of matter across elementary, middle, and high school grade levels. The instrument consists of three linked forms tailored to different grade bands (grades 3–6, 7–9, and…Project for Educational Research That Scales
Expert NotesStrengths:Validated across various grade levels including elementary, middle and postsecondary. Strong psychometric performance especially for the self-efficacy and sense of belonging constructs validated in postsecondary. Consistent across gender, first generation status, and race/ethnicity: minimal issues with measurement invariance across these demographics.
Cautions:Some subscales can be highly context dependent: Responses to items related to belonging can change based on classroom climate or recent interactions. Similarly a students' sense of self efficacy can differ widely across disciplines. Some self-efficacy items show limited measurement invariance over time, especially items related to challenging tasks.
Topics: Student LearningTags: Motivation, Student engagementThe Project for Educational Research That Scales (PERTS) survey is a 15-item self-report scale. It measures four academic mindsets: growth mindset, sense of belonging, task relevance, and self-efficacy. The purpose of the tool is to promote "healthy collective action". It helps teachers provide…Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observation (PLATO)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThe Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observations (PLATO) is a classroom observation protocol designed to evaluate thirteen elements of English Language Arts (ELA) instruction. It was originally developed for a study of the relationship between teachers' classroom practices and their impact on…Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Psychological Sense of School Membership includes 18 items that measure adolescent students' perceived belonging or psychological membership in the school environment.Psychological Wellbeing Scale
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Psychological Wellbeing Scale (PWB) is comprised of several subscales (self acceptance, positive relationships with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth) that measures six aspects of wellbeing and happiness. Individuals respond to the 42 items within…Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues (PASSI) Questionnaire
Expert NotesStrengths:Usefulness and liking of SSI are distinguished
Cautions:The subscale "dependency on others" consists of two items, raising questions about the validity of this particular subscale
The ability to predict behavioral and cognitive engagement with SSI was not tested
Topics: Student Well-BeingTags: Science educationThe Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues (PASSI) Questionnaire is a student survey designed to measure young people’s attitudes toward complex, real-world issues that connect science with social, ethical, and environmental considerations. The instrument examines how students think and…Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe 12-item Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS) was created by combining the 12 highest loading items from 3 other procrastination assessments. Respondent indicate their answers to question items on a 5-point Likert Scale ranging from 1 (very seldom or not true of me) to 5 (very often true or true of…Quality of Classroom Instruction (QCI)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThe Quality of Classroom Instruction (QCI) measures the quality of explicit instruction. QCI examines the following eight aspects of instructional interactions: teacher modeling, instructional pacing, response time, transitions between activities, student engagement, learning success, checks of…Quality of School Life Scale (QSL)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Quality of School Life Scale (QSL) measures the extent to which students have positive attitudes toward school. Subscore(s): Satisfaction with school, Commitment to classwork, Reactions to teachers Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from…REACH (Developmental Relationships) Survey
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThis survey measures social, emotional, and other factors on a student's learning motivation. It can be used to capture a one-time snapshot of academic motivation drivers or administered multiple times to assess change in students' motivation and strengths over time. Subscore(s): Motivation Note:…ReadBasix
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student LearningReadBasix is a web-administered reading assessment for students in grades 3–12. ReadBasix measures foundational reading skills including word recognition & decoding, vocabulary, sentence processing, reading efficiency, and other skills involved in reading comprehension via separate subtests.The…Readiness and Expectations Questionnaire (REQ)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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…REAL Math Toolkit Observation and Debrief Protocol
Expert NotesStrengths:Designed for use of teachers to guide improvement efforts; Tested with teachers in grades 7-12; Easy to use practical measure
Cautions:Not validated with external measures; Should not be used for evaluation
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThe REAL Math Toolkit Observation and Debrief Protocol is a pair of tools designed to support teachers and coaches in examining how culturally responsive and sustaining mathematics instruction shows up in a single lesson. The Observation Protocol provides a focused set of indicators tied to key…Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Convention and Networking (RIASEC + N Context-Linked version)
Expert NotesStrengths:Captures how interests are shaped by learning environments, relationships, and opportunities
Useful for career exploration and guidance in educational settings
Flexible across secondary, postsecondary, and informal learning contexts
Cautions:Not suitable for quick screening or high-stakes decision making
Topics: Student Well-BeingTags: Science educationDeveloped by Dierks et al. (2014) and adapted by Blankenburg et al. (2016) and Dierks et al. (2016), this questionnaire contains 93 Likert-style items graded on a four-point rating scale. It contains 3 science contexts: biology, chemistry, and physics.Recognizing Effective Special Education Teachers (RESET)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTags: Instructional practicesRESET is a special education teacher observation system that includes observation protocols aligned with evidence-based instructional practices for students with high-incidence disabilities. Subscore(s): Explicit instruction Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that…Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTags: Instructional practicesThe Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) is an observational instrument used to assess the degree to which mathematics or science instruction in grades K-12 is "reformed." Trained observers rate teachers' instruction across three domains: Lesson Design and Implementation, Content, and…Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingThe Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ) differentiates between: A prevention focus that emphasizes safety and responsibility, views goals as oughts, and is concerned with non-losses and losses. The RFQ was derived from a factor analysis of items assessing the history of individuals‘ success at…Relationship Questionnaire (Rel-Q)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student Well-BeingDesigned for the evaluation of school‐based character education programs. Multiple choice measure of psychosocial maturity derived from developmental theory that identifies the capacity to differentiate and coordinate the social perspectives of self and other to be central to treating other people…Renaissance Fundamentals Survey
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:Topics: Student LearningFormerly called Pupil Attitudes to Self and School® (PASS), the Renaissance Fundamentals survey assesses how students feel about school and themselves as a learner, including connectedness, self-efficacy, and motivation. The Renaissance Fundamentals survey can be used as a universal screener to…