Two tests were created from a standardized reading achievement test and vertically equated using a sample of third and fourth grade students. Based on differences in ability estimates for the same student, the Rasch model did not provide a satisfactory means of vertical equating. (Author/CM)

Studied the stability of rater severity over an extended rating period by applying multifaceted Rasch analysis to ratings of 16 raters of writing performances of 8,285 elementary school students. Findings cast doubt on the practice of using a single calibration of rate severity as the basis for adjustment of person measures. (SLD)

Three levels of a mathematics computation test were equated using the Rasch model. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were administered different levels of the test. Lack of consistency among equatings suggested that the Rasch model did not produce a satisfactory vertical equating of this computation test. (Author/RD)

With the nominal model of R. D. Bock as a framework, transformation matrices can be used to constrain the parameters of test item response categories to reflect their componential design. The approach is illustrated in a study of a spelling task completed by 385 Dutch third graders. (SLD)

A newly introduced approach, rule space, can represent large numbers of erroneous rules of arithmetic operations quantitatively and can predict the likelihood of each erroneous rule. The new model challenges the credibility of the traditional right-or-wrong scoring procedure. (Author/PN)

Effects of instructional coverage variations on item characteristic functions were examined, using eighth-grade data from the Second International Mathematics Study (1985). Although some differences in item response curves were large, better performance was not necessarily related to greater learning opportunity. Item curve response differences…

The psychometric characteristics of constructed response items referring to choice and nonchoice passages administered to approximately 150,000 students in grades 3, 5, and 8 were studied through item response theory methodology. Results indicated no consistent differences in the difficulty and discrimination of items referring to the two types of…

An index of student patterns of item response, when aggregated to the class level, was shown to identify classes that have a poor match between test content and instructional coverage. The mean caution index for a class can best be interpreted knowing the within-class standard deviation of the index. (Author/LMO)

Evidence from test results of 3,604 sixth and seventh graders is provided for the generalizability and validity of the Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying Student Achievement and Reasoning (QUASAR) Cognitive Assessment Instrument, which is designed to measure program outcomes and growth in mathematics. (SLD)

This study investigates whether a linear factor analytic method commonly used to evaluate violation of the item response theory (IRT) unidimensionality assumption is sensitive to measurable curricular differences within a school district and to examine the possibility of differential item performance for groups of students receiving different…

Using generalizability theory as a framework, the problem of assessing the content validity of standardized achievement tests is considered. Four designs to assess test-item fit to a curriculum are described, and procedures for determining the optimal number of raters and schools in a content-validation decision-making study are considered. (TJH)