Much has already been written on the controversies surrounding the use of different test theories in educational assessment. Other authors have noted the prevalence of classical test theory over item response theory in practice. This Special Issue draws together articles based upon work conducted on the Reliability Programme for England's…

This article presents the author's rejoinder to thinking about linking from issue 8(1). Particularly within the more embracing linking frameworks, e.g., Holland & Dorans (2006) and Holland (2007), there appears to be a major disjunction between (1) classification discourse: the supposed basis for classification, that is, the underlying theory…

Newton's article (2010) makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it is transatlantic, bringing together literatures that have been dealing with similar problems, using sometimes different methods and certainly with distinctive educational, cultural perspectives. He points out that neither of these literatures has all of the…

One means of learning about the processes operating in a multiple choice test is to include some test items, called nonsense items, which have no correct answer. This paper compares two versions of a mathematical model of test performance to interpret test data that includes both genuine and nonsense items. One formula is based on the usual…

Addresses some of the epistemic and practical issues facing alternative assessment, with particular reference to teacher assessment of spoken English as an additional language/second language (EAL/ESL) in the early years of primary education in England and Wales. (Author/VWL)