More than 60% of all community college students are placed into remedial, non-credit bearing courses. Concerns over the lack of articulation across the K-12 and postsecondary educational systems have led to concerns over whether students have had the opportunity to learn and demonstrate the skills required for success in college level classes. To…

Causes of local item dependence in a large-scale performance assessment were studied using data from the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. Contextual characteristics (content and response requirements) were identified to differentiate locally independent and dependent item clusters. Hypothesized explanations are offered for high…

While the charge that standardized tests are biased is not new, critics (including feminists) recently have made accusations of gender bias. One argument for the superior performance of males on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT), the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), and the American…

Test specifications dictate the kind of content that should be included on each form of an examination, and the relative weight that each content domain should contribute to the determination of examinees' test scores by specifying the proportion of items to be included in each content area. This paper addresses a step in the development of…

The effects of anchor test characteristics in the accuracy and precision of test equating in the "common items, nonequivalent groups design" were studied. The study also considered the effects of nonparallel based and new forms on the equating solution, and it investigated the effects of differential weighting on the success of equating…

The multistage alpha-stratified computerized adaptive testing (CAT) design advocated a new philosophy of pool management and item selection using low discriminating items first. It has been demonstrated through simulation studies to be effective both in reducing item overlap rate and enhancing pool utilization with certain pool types. Based on…

This study investigated whether equating accuracy improves with an anchor test that is more representative of its corresponding total test and whether such content effect depends on the particular equating method used. Scoring outcomes of a professional examination for a medical specialty were used. A total of 1,092 examinees took one form, and…

K. K. Waltman and D. A. Frisbie (1994) observed that teachers and parents often interpret grades given to students in both absolute and relative senses. They conclude that this sort of interpretation is illogical and may indicate misunderstandings in several areas. Absolute and relative methods of assigning letter grades are approached from…

Using an anchor-item design of test equating, the effects of three equating methods (Tucker linear and two three-parameter item-response-theory-based (3PL-IRT) methods), and the content representativeness of anchor items on the accuracy of equating were examined; and an innovative way of evaluating equating accuracy appropriate for the particular…

This paper presents six steps in test construction generally recommended by measurement textbook authors. The focus is primarily on paper-and-pencil achievement tests as used by class instructions, although the discussion touches on the construction of other types of assessment. The six steps are: (1) determine the test purpose; (2) determine the…

Modified Parallel Analysis (MPA) is a heuristic method for assessing "approximate unidimensionality" of item pools. It compares the second eigenvalue of the observed correlation matrix with the corresponding eigenvalue extracted from a "parallel" matrix generated by a unidimensional and locally independent model. Revised…

Score comparability is important to those who take tests and those who use them. One important concept related to test score comparability is that of "equity," which is defined as existing when examinees are indifferent as to which of two alternate forms of a test they would prefer to take. By their nature, computerized adaptive tests…

Many testing programs include a section of optional questions in addition to mandatory parts of a test. These optional parts of a test are not often truly parallel to one another, and groups of examinees selecting each optional test section are not equivalent to one another. This paper provides a general method based on missing-data methods for…

This paper compares two methods of establishing content validity, forced-choice judgmental review and a latent category judgmental review. It also compares content validity evidence with the results of a scale reliability analysis and makes recommendations of the two content validity procedures. Two different groups of graduate students enrolled…

A study was conducted to investigate: (1) the relationships between the results from various forms of assessment and the patterns of correlation across content areas; (2) how cognitive components correlate with the test results from different classroom assessments; and (3) how content areas affected the relationships. Data were collected from a…