Brennan (Brennan, R. L., 2012) noted that users of test scores often want (indeed, demand) that subscores be reported, along with total test scores, for diagnostic purposes. Haberman (Haberman, S. J., 2008) suggested a method based on classical test theory (CTT) to determine if subscores have added value over the total score. According to this…

Brennan noted that users of test scores often want (indeed, demand) that subscores be reported, along with total test scores, for diagnostic purposes. Haberman suggested a method based on classical test theory (CTT) to determine if subscores have added value over the total score. One way to interpret the method is that a subscore has added value…

Recently, there has been an increasing level of interest in subscores for their potential diagnostic value. Haberman (2008) suggested a method based on classical test theory to determine whether subscores have added value over total scores. This paper provides a literature review and reports when subscores were found to have added value for…

Recently there has been an increasing level of interest in subtest scores, or subscores, for their potential diagnostic value. Haberman (2008) suggested a method to determine if a subscore has added value over the total score. Researchers have often been interested in the performance of subgroups--for example, those based on gender or…

Recently, there has been an increasing level of interest in subscores for their potential diagnostic value. Haberman suggested a method based on classical test theory to determine whether subscores have added value over total scores. In this article I first provide a rich collection of results regarding when subscores were found to have added…

Diagnostic scores are of increasing interest in educational testing due to their potential remedial and instructional benefit. Naturally, the number of educational tests that report diagnostic scores is on the rise, as are the number of research publications on such scores. This article provides a critical evaluation of diagnostic score reporting…

Subscores are reported for several operational assessments. Haberman (2008) suggested a method based on classical test theory to determine if the true subscore is predicted better by the corresponding subscore or the total score. Researchers are often interested in learning how different subgroups perform on subtests. Stricker (1993) and…

Will subscores provide additional information than what is provided by the total score? Is there a method that can estimate more trustworthy subscores than observed subscores? To answer the first question, this study evaluated whether the true subscore was more accurately predicted by the observed subscore or total score. To answer the second…

There is an increasing interest in reporting subscores, both at examinee level and at aggregate levels. However, it is important to ensure reasonable subscore performance in terms of high reliability and validity to minimize incorrect instructional and remediation decisions. This article employs a statistical measure based on classical test theory…