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…

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…

Describes a "mistake" on the newly developed Illinois State Achievement Test for Third Grade reading comprehension involving the substitution of illustrations of a White family for the African-American family members in a story. Tells the story of how a group of third-graders discovered the mistake and the reactions and events which took…

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…

The authors provide information about test construction and testing practices in order to help parents and teachers to ask important and critical questions about them. Issues pertinent to the appropriate selection, use, and interpretation of tests are presented. (Author/CL)

This book explains writing effective multiple-choice test items and studying responses to items to evaluate and improve them, two topics that are very important in the development of many cognitive tests. The chapters are: (1) "Providing a Context for Multiple-Choice Testing"; (2) "Constructed-Response and Multiple-Choice Item Formats"; (3)…

Discusses the development of a language aptitude test designed to help select students to study German. Four areas of assessment are memory ability, ability to deal with stress and intonation patterns, inductive reasoning ability, and ability to recognize grammatical case. (EKN)

Explores rhetorical specification in writing tasks by examining responses to a poorly constructed task used in large-scale placement testing at a major university. Argues that fictional scenarios (writing prompts which give student writers a role to play) can be effective, provided that the roles created are reasonable ones for students to adopt.…

This handbook will assist principals and school testing coordinators in implementing the spring 2007 administration of the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). Information regarding administration timeline, reporting, process, online tools and contact personnel is discussed. Contents include: (1) Scheduling; (2) Identify Primary Test…

This paper is based on guidelines developed in 1989 for training workshops for state and local educators to demonstrate the processes by which performance assessments could be created, validated, and used in statewide assessment programs. These guidelines are based on work with the National Assessment of Educational Progress and several statewide…

Criteria are presented for vocational evaluators who use work samples as one means of determining the vocational potential of blind clients. Included are rationale for the use of work samples; specific steps for their administration, scoring, and use of norms; and criteria for modifying present work samples and developing new ones. A literature…

Discusses how listening is now being tested as three separate abilities, how test validity is affected by administration factors, criticisms of listening skills tests currently available, and criteria for development of reliable and valid listening tests. (MBR)

This article identifies language issues confounding the assessment of deaf students' English writing competence. Possible alternate methods of test administration are explored, and direction for future test development is offered. (Author/DB)

This report presents factors to consider in the design of computer-based testing for all students, including students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency. It also provides a process for the initial transformation of paper/pencil assessments to inclusive computer-based testing. Steps include: (1) assemble a group of…

Current scoring procedures depend on unrealistic assumptions about subjects' performance on the rod-and-frame test. A procedure is presented which corrects for constant error, is sensitive to response strategy and consistency, and examines qualitative and quantitative aspects of performance and individual differences in laterality bias as defined…