The 1961 meeting of the Western Regional Conference on Testing Problems dealt with changes in education and measurement since Sputnik. The following papers were presented: (1) "Who's Testing Whom and for What?" by Daniel D. Feder; (2) "Recent Development and Problems in the Teaching of English" by Alfred H. Grommon; (3) "The New Foreign Language Teaching and the Need for Tests in All the Skills" by George Scherer; (4) "The Teaching of Modern Mathematics"...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Testing Problems
10
10.0
Oct 14, 2021
10/21
by
Black, Rex, 1964-
texts
eye 10
favorite 1
comment 0
xviii, 366 p. : 25 cm
Topics: Computer software -- Testing, Computer software -- Testing -- Problems, exercises, etc
This study evolved from a practical field situation that dictated an item format change. The item type in question is a variety of the multiple true-false item, widely used in state and municipal civil service examinations. Items are produced, not by combining pairs of independent true-false items, but as a means of salvaging not quite adequate four-choice multiple items. The original items may have no right answer: two, three, or four right answers; or one or two ambiguous or nonplausible...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multiple Choice Tests, Test Construction, Testing Problems
The purpose of this essay is to describe the principles of educational measurement proposed by B. Wood during the 1920s in his dissertation, written under the direction of E. L. Thorndike, and later published as "Measurement in Higher Education" (1923). These principles were selected because they illustrate one of the earliest and most complete descriptions of a set of basic and perennial problems encountered in educational testing. The specific questions addressed in this essay are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational History, Educational Testing, Test Theory, Testing Problems
The 1966 meeting of the Western Regional Conference on Testing Problems dealt with accelerated educational change. The following speeches were presented: (1) "Access to Higher Education: Implications for Future Planning" by Richard Pearson; (2) "The Differentiated Youth: A Challenge to Traditional Institutions" by Joseph D. Lohman; (3) "Teaching and Testing the Disadvantaged" by William Johntz; (4) "Teaching the Bill of Rights in the High School" by...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Admission, Conference Reports, Disadvantaged, Educational Change, Educational...
Complexities of test fairness are described in nontechnical language, and their implications for the selection procedures practiced in our society are discussed. Four clearly distinguishable models of fair selection are presented: the Cleary, or traditional, model; the Cole model; the Thorndike model; and the Darlington model. A distinction is made between the use of tests in a manner which is "fair", and the concept of "test bias", which most frequently refers to the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Models, Selection, Test Bias, Testing Problems, Flaugher, Ronald L.
In this speech given at the 1976 annual breakfast of the National Council on Measurement in Education Dr. Thomas J. Fitzgibbon, outgoing president of NCME, responds to critics of standardized testing and outlines the correct uses for it. He believes that many criticisms of standardized testing are due to misunderstanding or a lack of information. (Author/MV)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Achievement Tests, Standardized Tests, Test Reliability, Test Validity, Testing...
This guide is divided into four parts. Part I, an introduction, contains a discussion of why item banking has failed thus far to become a widely accepted procedure for test development, as well as some miscellaneous information on item banking that may be useful. In Part 2, completed questionnaires from 22 organizations with item banks give information about content and size of the banks, services available from the sponsoring organization, etc. The results of an item bank telephone survey with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Testing, Information Sources, Item Banks, Test Construction, Testing...
1
1.0
Jan 20, 2022
01/22
by
Vojkofsky, Tonia
texts
eye 1
favorite 1
comment 0
Topics: Cognition -- Testing -- Problems, exercises, etc, Intellect -- Problems, exercises, etc, Cognition...
The rapid growth of minimum competency testing (by 1981, 36 states in the United States had mandated some form of minimum competency testing) has led to increased legal challenges of the existing testing programs. Three issues have been raised and are summarized in this brief overview: (1) constitutional claims under the due process clause; (2) equal protection; and (3) negligence or educational malpractice. Several of these issues were raised by the case of Debra P. v. Turlington which...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Legal Problems, Minimum Competency Testing, Testing...
A framework, or classification scheme, is provided for displaying the spectrum of criterion-referenced tests. This framework illustrates that no single type of test can be identified as the absolute prototype criterion-referenced test. It is shown that over the past 115 years criterion-referenced testing has grown to be a many-faceted concept, its multitude of specific instances differing qualitatively from each other. A definition is provided for a criterion-referenced test as one that is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Classification, Criterion Referenced Tests, Test Construction, Test Validity, Testing...
Computer-based testing places great burdens on all involved parties to ensure test security. A task analysis of test site security might identify the areas of protecting the test, protecting the data, and protecting the environment as essential issues in test security. Protecting the test involves transmission of the examinations, identifying the examinee, and supervising test administration. Protecting the data means ensuring that it does not fall into the wrong hands, while protecting the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Adaptive Testing, Computer Assisted Testing, Testing Problems, Rosen, Gerald A.
This report describes the design and results of an experiment to test whether a $10.00 payment to participate in the national Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) would significantly increase the response rate for the survey. The design and findings of the study, as well as a comparison of response rates prior to and following implementation of renumberation in HANES, are also described. (Author)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Evaluation Methods, Participation, Questionnaires, Research Projects, Responses,...
The equating of scores on alternate forms of different achievement tests through the use of the three-parameter latent trait model, item-response theory (IRT) equating, was compared with the results of score equatings based on conventional linear and curvilinear equating models. Ten equatings were completed for pairs of alternate forms of the Advanced Placement Program, which measures different content areas and traits in each subject area. It was found that despite the apparent violation of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Achievement Tests, Equated Scores, Higher Education, Latent Trait Theory, Testing...
THE PAPER REPORTS ON AN ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE EMPIRICALLY, FOR SEVERAL TEST-CONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS, THE AMOUNT OF IMPROVEMENT RESULTING WHEN TESTS ARE TAILORMADE TO FIT ONE PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTIC OF A LOCAL POPULATION--THE BASE RATES OF THE TWO CRITERION GROUPS WHICH THE TEST IS DESIGNED TO SEPARATE. THE BASIC PROCEDURE USED WAS TO CONSTRUCT A SERIES OF TESTS WHICH WERE ALIKE IN THE ITEM POOL AND ITEM-SELECTION TECHNIQUE USED, AND IN THE TWO CRITERION GROUPS WHICH THE TESTS WERE DESIGNED TO...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Correlation, Statistical Data, Test Construction, Testing, Testing Problems,...
TEST WISENESS ABILITIES ON PERSONALITY SCALES WERE MEASURED BY SPECIALLY DEVELOPED INSTRUMENTS. THE FOUR TEST-WISENESS VARIABLES WERE--(1) ESTIMATING DESIRABILITY (ACCURACY IN ESTIMATING THE DESIRABILITY OF PERSONALITY ITEMS), (2) ESTIMATING COMMUNALITY (ACCURACY IN ESTIMATING THE COMMUNALITY OF ITEMS), AND (3) ABILITY TO IDENTIFY ITEMS (CORRECTNESS IN IDENTIFYING AND "KEYING" ITEMS). SEVERAL ROLE PLAYING MEASURES BASED ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCORES OBTAINED WITH FAKE-GOOD AND...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Performance, Personality Measures, Research, Test Validity, Testing Problems,...
Four essential dimensions of a performance test are detailed: directness of test method, type of criterion, standardization of conditions, and objectivity of scoring. For simplicity these factors are described as if each were dichotomous, when in actuality each is a continuum; a test method may be more or less direct, conditions more or less standardized. Moreover, as shown here, the dimensions are depicted as independent, when in practice they are not--for instance, indirect methods of testing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Performance Tests, Scoring, Test Reliability, Test Validity, Testing, Testing...
47
47
Jun 4, 2020
06/20
by
Lewis, Gareth
texts
eye 47
favorite 3
comment 0
90 pages : 20 cm
Topics: Ability -- Testing, Ability -- Testing -- Problems, exercises, etc, Aptitude tests, Aptitude,...
Trait adjectives have both evaluative and denotative meanings. Evaluation of a trait varies with the context of other traits attributed to the person. The meaning-change interpretation suggests that denotative change in trait meaning underlies evaluative change. The evaluative-halo interpretation attributes context effects of single trait ratings to an amalgamation of trait and person evaluation. Two experiments contrast these interpretations. In the first, context effected judged implication...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Context Clues, Evaluation, Individual Characteristics, Semantics, Testing Problems,...
This paper reviews the differences between two interpretations accounting for the poor test performance of high anxious students: (1) that anxiety interferes with retrieval of prior learning; or (2) that, due to study skills deficits, the initial acquisition by anxious students is less thorough than by those lower in anxiety. Research results dealing with both hypotheses are reviewed. It is concluded that these are complementary, rather than mutually exclusive, formulations. A hypothesis is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cognitive Processes, Study Skills, Test Anxiety, Test Wiseness, Testing Problems,...
This chapter outlines the concept of test anxiety and its impact on performance, manners in which to diagnose and provide accommodations for the disability, and many means by which to reduce the impact of test anxiety. Overall, it bears repeating that although the concept of test anxiety is relatively simple, understanding how it affects a given individual is complex and dependent on many factors. Despite its complexity, test anxiety is an important consideration as long as performance...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disabilities, Educational Testing, Predictor Variables, Test Anxiety, Testing...
In studying the effectiveness of different instructional practices or programs, it is possible that an outcome measure may be biased in favor of a particular practice or program because the overlap between the test and one program is greater than for the other(s). Two basic approaches for dealing with the overlap issue are reviewed. The first approach is a systematic analysis of curricula and tests to help guide test selection. A second approach to overlap is to measure the degree of overlap...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Evaluation, Evaluation Methods, Instruction, Program Effectiveness,...
Nevada statutes and administrative regulations specifically prohibit the disclosure of the content of examinations used in the Nevada Proficiency Examination Program. This document focuses on procedures to insure examination security. The state's test security requirements are outlined. Other sections deal with access to and copying of examination materials, and storing and distributing test materials. Security procedures during the administration of the examinations are described, and the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Testing, Elementary Secondary Education, State Programs, Testing...
Court cases are presented that illustrate some of the issues that courts have dealt with in the area of educational testing. While this study was developed primarily for parents, the booklet should also help school administrators and testing professionals learn about court cases and precedents relevant to some major issues in educational testing. This document is not a comprehensive listing of court cases and precedents on the issue of educational testing, and it does not fully discuss the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Court Litigation, Educational Testing, Elementary Secondary Education, Test Bias,...
The purposes of this paper are five-fold to discuss: (1) when item response theory (IRT) equating methods should provide better results than traditional methods; (2) which IRT model, the three-parameter logistic or the one-parameter logistic (Rasch), is the most reasonable to use; (3) what unique contributions IRT methods can offer the equating process; (4) what work has been done that relates to the confidence that can be placed in the IRT equating results; and (5) what unresolved issues exist...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Equated Scores, Latent Trait Theory, Mathematical Models, Test Construction, Testing...
This study is an a priori demonstration of the applicability of multiple matrix sampling techniques to the practical research problem of parameter estimation. Three tests were administered to two separate but parallel populations, with one receiving item samples and the other receiving full tests. Special efforts were made to minimize the context effect due to sampling procedures. Parameters estimated from matrix sampling statistics closely matched those estimated from full test results,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Bias, Item Sampling, Matrices, Standardized Tests, Statistical Analysis, Testing,...
This study, involving 131 students in grades ten, eleven, and twelve, investigated the effects of order of administration of subtests on scores from the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. Results indicated that order of administration had no significant effect on scores from the vocabulary subtest or on the total test score, but subjects taking the vocabulary subtest before the comprehension subtest obtained higher comprehension scores than those taking them in reverse order. (AA)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Research, Reading Tests, Secondary Education, Test Reliability, Test...
Two distinct approaches, one based on item response theory and the other based on observed item responses and standard summary statistics, have been proposed to identify unusual response patterns. A link between these two approaches is provided by showing certain correspondences between Sato's S-P Curve Theory and item response theory. This link makes possible several extensions of Sato's caution index that take advantage of the results of item response theory. Several such indices are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Arithmetic, Computer Assisted Testing, Latent Trait Theory, Matrices, Statistical...
This 125-item annotated bibliography gives access to much of research undertaken in the past decade concerning sex bias in testing, e.g., educational achievement tests, career interest inventories, and aptitude tests attacked as being biased against females. The items originated with a computer search of several data bases including the following: The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) data base yields documents announced in Resources in Education (RIE) and journal articles indexed...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Annotated Bibliographies, Elementary Secondary Education, Sex Bias, Test Bias,...
A study examined whether composition specialists can counterbalance the potential privileging of the assessment perspective, or of self-appointed interpreters of that perspective, through the study of assessment discourse as text. Fourteen assessment texts were examined, most of them journal articles and most of them featuring the common methodology of educational testers--statistical inference. Critical strategies employed were: closely examining the language in which assumptions about writing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Discourse Analysis, Higher Education, Statistical Inference, Student Evaluation,...
The Ralph Nader report on the Educational Testing Service (ETS), entitled The Reign of ETS, the Corporation That Makes Up Minds, explicitly and implicitly raises serious issues concerning the testing enterprise. Major themes include the role of testing in the educational selection system, the validity of existing tests, and the corporate power of ETS. This paper explores and evaluates charges from the perspectives of social and educational policy and of psychometric theory and practice. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Book Reviews, College Entrance Examinations, Test Format, Test Validity, Testing,...
Procedures used to compare the results from item response theory as well as more traditional equating methods were described and critically analyzed. The implications of the comparison of equipercentile, linear, one-parameter (Rasch), and three-parameter methods for equating twelve forms of each of the five tests of General Educational Development (GED) were discussed. The use of factor analyses to assess test dimensionality, examination of equating curves, examination of item parameter...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Adults, Equated Scores, Equivalency Tests, Factor Analysis, Latent Trait Theory,...
THE RELEVANCE OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS FOR EDUCATIONAL USES IS CHALLENGED ON TWO GROUNDS--(1) TESTS WHICH MERELY PREDICT THE LIKELIHOOD OF FUTURE SUCCESS DO NOT PROVIDE USEFUL INFORMATION FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO PRESCRIBE TREATMENTS TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE, AND (2) INTELLIGENCE IS NOT DEFINED AND HENCE THE INTERPRETATION OF SCORES IS MISLEADING. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT EDUCATIONALLY-RELEVANT TESTS MUST BE BASED UPON EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES FOR VALIDATION. THE SKILLS TO BE TESTED MUST BE DEFINED AND...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Intelligence, Intelligence Tests, Measurement Objectives, Test Validity, Testing...
Measurement issues related to assessment of the individual in both formal and non-formal education are outlined. First, techniques to assess the educational value of life experiences (especially adults contemplating new educational or work experiences are described). The work of Ruth Ekstrom stresses deriving the dimensions of accomplishment to be assessed from the interests and background of the individual, rather than from a predetermined list of characteristics to be measured. Secondly, an...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Experiential Learning, Females, Individualism, Nontraditional Education,...
An accepted criterion for gauging the fairness of examinees' scores, derived from judge-awarded ratings, has been the size of the correlation between the judges and the inter-rater reliability. Various means of achieving inter-rater reliability were reviewed, and a model to measure inter-rater reliability is forwarded. Both theoretical and practical considerations mandate that perfect inter-rater reliability can never be achieved. A stochastic element always remains. Objective measurement of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Evaluators, Interrater Reliability, Latent Trait Theory, Licensing Examinations...
From a study on drug treatment effects on the memory and affective functioning of ambulatory geriatric volunteers, the author recommends several methodological accommodations as necessary and expedient to geriatric assessment. Special procedural attention is required by certain characteristics unique to, or exaggerated among, elderly participants. Designs must acknowledge self-presentation difficulties, symptom overlap, and the importance of keeping things simple. (Author)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Drug Therapy, Geriatrics, Gerontology, Measurement Techniques, Memory, Older Adults,...
Barbara Jordan served as the hearing officer for three-day adversary evaluation hearings about the pros and cons of minimum competency testing (MCT). This report is the complete transcript of the first day of proceedings. James Popham and George Madaus presented the opening arguments for the pro team and con team, respectively. Michael Scriven, testifying for the pro team, asserted that MCT constitutes "the last hope of education." The pro team also presented testimony from witnesses...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Hearings, Minimum Competency Testing, Test Bias,...
American schools face pressure to increase their students' test scores. Research reports have shown American students to be particularly stressed over test taking partially because of other outside interests in their lives that also take up time. This paper offers tips to help students relieve stress arising from the testing situation. Students should practice taking tests, be prepared, read the directions slowly and carefully, think positively, and relax. One research study found that students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Scores, Test Anxiety, Test Wiseness, Testing, Testing Problems,...
A description of the difficulties encountered in constructing a criterion-referenced test to assess end-of-year skills as part of a program evaluation is presented. The problems encountered in preparing the customized test are described in humorous detail. The first problem involved the listening test obtained from a publisher without administration instruction. The test booklets were not prepared as ordered, and item formats had to be changed. Items were incorrectly scored when returned to the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Achievement Tests, Criterion Referenced Tests, Program Evaluation, Publications,...
The roles of humor and anxiety in test performance were investigated. Measures of trait anxiety, state anxiety and achievement were obtained on a sample of undergraduate students; the A-Trait and A-State scales of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used. Half of the students received additional humorous items in the achievement test. The purpose of the study was to examine the assumption that the introduction of humor into the academic test situation would facilitate achievement test...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Achievement Tests, Anxiety, Higher Education, Humor, Scores, Test Anxiety, Test...
The subject of constructing criterion-referenced tests is often researched, but many technical problems remain to be satisfactorily resolved. Foremost, criterion-referenced test developers need a comprehensive set of steps for construction. In this paper, 14 logical steps for building criterion-referenced tests that refer to several different applications and allow for objective and non-objective formats are offered: 1) preliminary considerations; 2) identification of possible content; 3)...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Criterion Referenced Tests, Cutting Scores, Guidelines, Scoring, Test Construction,...
A common problem in practical educational research is that of perfect scores which result when latent trait models are used. A simple procedure for managing the perfect and zero response problem encountered in converting test scores into measures is presented. It allows the test user to chose among two or three reasonable finite representations of these boundary scores. A convenient approximation is given which is accurate in all but highly assymetric situations when the procedure is applied to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Factor Analysis, Item Analysis, Latent Trait Theory, Mathematical Models, Scores,...
Investigated empirically through post mortem item-examinee sampling were the relative merits of two alternative procedures for allocating items to subtests in multiple matrix sampling and the feasibility of using the jackknife in approximating standard errors of estimate. The results indicate clearly that a partially balanced incomplete block design is preferable to random sampling in allocating items to subtests. The jackknife was found to better approximate standard errors of estimate in the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Error of Measurement, Item Sampling, Matrices, Sampling, Statistical Analysis,...
The cultural test bias hypothesis represents the contention that all ethnic or racial group differences on mental tests are due to inherent, artifactual biases produced within the tests through flawed psychometric methodology. This address focuses on an empirical evaluation of the cultural test bias hypothesis, especially emphasizing the construct validity and criterion-related validity of these tests. A considerable body of literature exists failing to substantiate cultural bias against...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Intelligence Tests, Personality Measures, Test Bias,...
This report documents (1) the problems inherent in multiple choice testing, (2) a solution to the problems, and (3) computer programs required by the solution. Problems of multiple choice testing include scheduling inflexibility, methodological inflexibility, cheating, inefficiencies of space and student interaction time, inefficiencies of instructor preparation time, uneven quality of examinations, and expense of preparation. The solution has four major features: (1) a special item file...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Computer Programs, Higher Education, Multiple Choice Tests, Test Construction, Test...
Some of the conceptual and methodological problems in identifying and measuring creativity in young children are presented. Among the issues raised are: (1) the prediction of validity of creativity tests, (2) the problem of predicting adult creativity from evidence of childhood creativity, and (3) the need to identify and adequately measure the various components of creativity rather than grouping these components under the rubric "creativity", and (4) the need to discover the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Children, Creativity, Creativity Tests, Predictive Measurement, Predictor Variables,...
A need for measurement exists not only in academic events but also in the affective domain. The author presents a procedure for quantification of affective behavior. The procedure contains three stages. One is the conceptualization stage in which personal meanings of elements in the affective domain are examined. Another is the crucial operationalization stage in which decisions are made regarding what events will be accepted as evidence of desirable affective behavior. The other stage is the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Affective Behavior, Affective Measures, Measurement Techniques, Test Construction,...
A project designed to determine the relevance of existing standardized achievement tests to the goals of individualized instruction is among the ongoing research activities of Project PLAN, a computer-supported individualized education program. Standardized achievement tests (including the Metropolitan Readiness Test, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and of Educational Development) were administered in the fall of 1968 and the spring of 1969 to control group...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Evaluation Needs, Individualized Instruction, Measurement Objectives, Standardized...
This paper discusses the fact that reliability is about scores and not tests and how reliability limits effect sizes. The paper also explores the classical reliability coefficients of stability, equivalence, and internal consistency. Stability is concerned with how stable test scores will be over time, while equivalence addresses the relationship between various forms of a test. Coefficient alpha is one of the common ways to describe the internal consistency of a test. The features that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Effect Size, Meta Analysis, Reliability, Scores, Test Theory, Testing Problems,...
This study applies a procedure which yields estimates of true score change on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) adjusted for regression effects and student self-selection. It is shown that student self-selection in deciding to repeat an admissions test probably involves factors in addition to the measurement error attributable to variations in aspects of test specifications and to variations in responses of test candidates across forms, and that estimated true score change remains nearly...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Entrance Examinations, Error of Measurement, Regression (Statistics), Scores,...
