The Instruments

The Playground Observation of Peer Engagement (POPE) is an observation-based instrument measuring children’s engagement in activities and with peers in naturalistic environments. It focuses on the time children spend in various engagement states and the frequency of their social engagement states and behaviors (games and conversations, parallel play, observing others, and solitary play). 

This scale is meant to be used as a self-reporting tool to assess the impacts of positive youth development programs. These programs are meant to provide opportunities for youth to increase their skills, abilities, and interests in positive activities. This scale was created for both domestic and international use. This scale was based on the PYDI (Arnold et al) but adjusted with items removed and a construct to measure happiness added.

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).

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).

The Predictive Assessment of Reading (PAR) can be used to measure a student's reading level, identify skills in need of intervention, monitor progress, and predict future reading achievement. The assessment contains four reading subtests that can be administered to special needs, gifted, ELL students, and developing students in grades PreK-3.

The Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales-Second Edition (PKBS-2) is a behavior rating scale designed for use with children ages 3 through 6 years. This unique behavior rating scale is easy to use, very practical, and based on a solid foundation of research. With 76 items on two separate scales, it provides an integrated and functional appraisal of the social skills and problem behaviors of young children. The scales can be completed by a variety of behavioral informants, such as parents, teachers, and other caregivers.

The 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 quality feedback. The measure has been used as a pre- and post-test to assess the effects of initial teacher education courses on assessment.

The 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 Learning Environment Survey can be administered in conjunction with the Pride Teaching Environment survey in order to to directly compare teacher and student responses.

The 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 student achievement. It is currently being used as a professional development tool to support teachers' use of rigorous, research-based teaching practices. PLATO is designed to work across a variety of curricula and instructional approaches.

The Psychological Sense of School Membership includes 18-items that measure adolescent students' perceived belonging or psychological membership in the school environment.

The 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 this measure using a seven-point Likert scale.

The 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 me). The PPS has been translated into several languages.

The 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 student understanding, and academic feedback. Observers assign QCI scores to each instructional aspect on a scale from 1 (low quality) to 3 (high quality) at the end of the observed lesson.

This survey is a measure of social, emotional, and other factors on a student's motivation to learn. It can be used to capture a one-time snapshot of academic motivation drivers, or can be administered multiple times to assess change in students' motivation and strengths over time.

ReadBasix 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 assessment has multiple forms and is vertically scaled, allowing it to be used for progress monitoring, measuring student growth, or detecting changes in reading as a result of intervention.

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. 

RESET is a special education teacher observation system that includes observation protocols aligned with evidence-based instructional practices for students with high-incidence disabilities. 

The Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) is an observational instrument that can be 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; Classroom Culture. Possible scores range from 0 to 100 points, with higher scores reflecting a greater degree of use of reform-based instructional practices.

The 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 promotion and prevention tasks over the course of their lives. This questionnaire consists of 11 items that are answered on a scale of 1-5.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is a 10-item scale measuring self-esteem within respondents. Half of the scale items are worded positively, while the other half are worded negatively. Each scale item is answered using a 4-point Likert scale, 1 being strongly agree and 4 being strongly disagree. 

Self-report instrument that measures empathy toward people of racial and ethnic backgrounds different from one’s own. SEE is composed of three instrumental aspects: intellectual empathy, empathic emotions, and the communication of these perspectives to others via word or action. These resolve into three constructs: Empathic expression; empathic perspective-taking; acceptance of cultural differences.

The Scale of Teacher Empathy for African American Males (S-TEAAM) measures teachers’ conceptions of empathy and the application of empathy with Black males.

The School Belongingness Scale (SBS) is a 10-item measure of students' sense of belonging in the school as a whole as well as their relationships with teachers and peers. The measure includes items related to "Social Exclusion" and "Social Acceptance."

The School Climate and School Identification Measure was designed to assess four critical (Student-student relations, Student-staff relations, Shared values and approach, and Academic emphasis) school climate factors along with a social identity measure of school identification in students ranging from grade 7 to grade 10.

The School Climate for Diversity (SCD-S) is a student-reported school racial climate survey for middle and high school students that evaluates ten subscales in two domains (intergroup interactions and school racial socialization) of racial climatetapping.

This revised version of the School Climate Measure (SCM) is a 42-item measure comprised of 10 subscales, all rated on a 5-point Likert scale. An additional 2 subscales, Parental Involvement and Opportunities for Student Engagement, have been added to the original 8 subscales (Positive Student-Teacher Relationships, School Connectedness, Academic Support, Order and Discipline, Physical Environment, Social Environment, Perceived Exclusion, and Academic Satisfaction) from the first version of the SCM.

The School Climate Survey (SCS), comprised of 40 question items, is utilized to assess children’s perceptions of the quality of their school’s climate by measuring the prevalence of behaviors within the school that correspond to specific interpersonal and intrapersonal character traits. All items are responded too using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (almost always).

The School Implementation Climate Scale (SICS) assesses the school’s climate with regard to the strategic implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP). The scale examines seven constructs: focus on EBP, educational support for EBP, recognition for EBP, rewards for EBP, use of data to support EBP, existing supports to deliver EBP, and integration of EBP. SICS items are Likert-scale ranging from 0 (“not at all”) to 4 ("very great extent").

The School Implementation Leadership Scale (SILS) quantifies implementation leadership focusing on behaviors supporting or inhibiting the implementation of evidence-based practices in schools. SILS subscales examine proactive leadership, knowledgeable leadership, supportive leadership, perseverant leadership, communication, vision, and availability to support the implementation of evidence-based practices. SILS uses five-point Likert-scale items with responses ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (to a very great extent.)

The School Social Behavior Scales (SSBS) are sold by Brookes Publishing and measure social competence and antisocial behavior (with 32 items measuring each). They are filled out by teachers and evaluated by psychologists, and are meant to be accompanied by the Home & Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS)--to be completed by a parent or other adult the student knows well--for a complete assessment.