A PRELIMINARY CONSTRUCT VALIDATION OF TEACHER GRADING OF NONINTELLECTIVE STUDENT BEHAVIOR AMONG FIFTH- AND SIXTH-GRADE MALES (PEER ASSESSMENT, PSYCHOMETRICS, RATING SCALES)

The grading of nonintellective student behavior (NISB) on elementary school report cards has received little research attention. Four analogue models of NISB were found in the literature involving rating scales of child behavior. Two constructs reported on such scales, Task Orientation and Interpersonal Skills, were hypothesized to structure teachers\u27 perceptions of pupils in assigning NISB grades. This study recruited 256 fifth- and sixth-grade male students and 26 teachers. Teachers evaluated their pupils on the Pupil Behavior Rating Scale (PBRS), the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale, and an Assessment of Student Classroom Behavior (ASCB). Pupils rated each other on the Student-Peer Nomination Inventory (SPNI), developed by the investigator to evaluate classroom and personality functioning. All NISB marks showed modest but significant test-retest reliability when compared with identical rating statements on the ASCB after a mean 5.2 week interval (median tau-b = .392). Two additive subsets of NISB marks, the NISB-Task (6 items) and NISB-Social (3 items) scales, were isolated following factor- and other analytic procedures. The NISB-Task scale was predicted solely by the Classroom Adaptation score on the PBRS (multiple R = .61) and by the Classroom Adaptiveness and Classroom Nonadaptiveness ratings on the SPNI (multiple R = .63). The NISB-Social scale was predicted solely by the PBRS Interpersonal Functioning score (multiple R = .43) and the SPNI Aggressiveness rating (multiple R = .43). A two-factor analytic solution to the 32-item ASCB was generated. A dichotomous classification of ASCB items demonstrated significant agreement with the classification reported in Hevern and Geisinger\u27s (1984) study of NISB marking statements (kappa = .51). The results suggested a model of NISB grading both dimensional and hierarchical: Teachers primarily evaluated pupils for Task Orientation, and, secondarily, for Interpersonal Skills, particularly those disruptive of the classroom learning environment. Withdrawn students were less visible in NISB grading than aggressive students and tended to receive low Task-oriented marks. The need for careful consideration of the psychometric qualities of NISB grading statements and metrics was emphasized