This article describes a study, from a Canadian technical institute's upgrading mathematics course, where students played a role in developing the final closed-book exam that they sat. The study involved a process where students developed practice exams and solutions keys, students sat each other's practice exams, students evaluated classmates'…

Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I…

It is commonly proposed that educational and psychological assessments consist of a multifaceted procedure that incorporates scores from a variety of tests and resources. Little guidance has been offered regarding the method for selecting a combination of testing instruments used in an evaluation. The problem of test selection is discussed in the…

Essentially a do-it-yourself-kit for security in a citywide testing program, this article presents a step-by-step description of what was done by the Office of Educational Evaluation in New York City to redress a serious testing problem. (JC)

This response to a previous article concerning the use of the CBEST considers the importance of periodic review of testing and scoring procedures, the uses and improvement of these procedures, and the search for alternatives which better suit the intended purposes. (CB)

Discusses passage content and style, accessibility of the passages, their completeness, the extent to which the items are passage-dependent, and the extent to which additional knowledge is required to answer the questions on reading comprehension tests and exercises. (TO)

Describes the Dutch rating system for test quality, which evaluates a test for seven criteria, and analyses the results of test ratings from the past 18 years. Results show a steady increase in test quality in the Netherlands that can be attributed to use of better tests and declining use of tests of less quality after evaluation. (SLD)

Describes the 1997 revision of the Dutch Rating System for Test Quality used by a committee of the Dutch Association of Psychologists. The rating system evaluates test quality on seven criteria using a checklist for each criterion. Comment sections provide additional information, and weighting rules establish the final grades. (SLD)

Suggestions for change include development of new kinds of tests, higher standards for both tests and test users, and collaboration by test authors, publishers, and counselors within AMEG in an effort to prevent a complete dissolution of the marriage between tests and the counseling process. (Author)

Describes a school board's decision to employ a standardized reading proficiency test despite the fact that the test was proven to be passage independent and thus did not measure reading comprehension. (DD)

A three-dimensional (3-D) test, comparable to twenty-five items from the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, constructed to determine whether 3-D stimuli would facilitate responses when compared to two dimensional (2-D) stimuli, revealed no significant effects for the version of the test (2-D or 3-D) or the order of administration. (MB)

The extent to which essay and objective tests measure the same or different abilities when instruction and content remain constant is investigated. (PR)

Three areas of concern related to test bias and validity should be considered during the revision of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests. The first area concerns the sources and consequences of test bias. Five sources of bias have been identified: numerical bias, role bias, status bias, stereotypic bias, and familiarity bias. The…

The implementation of a district-wide testing program requires careful consideration of credibility issues. These issues have been frequently overlooked or treated casually by test developers and users alike. It is well enough to study the reliability and validity issues involved when selecting instrumentation. It is also necessary to identify…