Multiple-choice questions are an important part of large-scale summative assessments, such as the advanced placement (AP) chemistry exam. However, past AP chemistry exam items often lacked the ability to test conceptual understanding and higher-order cognitive skills. The redesigned AP chemistry exam shows a distinctive shift in item types toward…

The reading framework for the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) presents the assessment's conceptual base and discusses its content. The framework describes the types of texts and questions that should be included in the assessment, as well as how the questions should be designed and scored. This report provides highlights of…

General chemistry tests from the Examinations Institute of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society have been analyzed to identify factors that may influence how individual test items perform. In this paper, issues of item order (position within a set of items that comprise a test) and answer order (position of correct…

As the ongoing national indicator of what American students know and can do, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading regularly collects achievement information on representative samples of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Through The Nation's Report Card, the NAEP Reading Assessment reports how well students perform in…

The current paper discusses ambiguities in critical thinking assessment. The paper first reviews the components of critical thinking. It then discusses the features and issues of commonly used critical thinking tests and to what extend they are made compatible to the conceptualization of critical thinking. The paper argues that critical thinking…

As the ongoing national indicator of what American students know and can do, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading regularly collects achievement information on representative samples of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Through The Nation's Report Card, the NAEP Reading Assessment reports how well students perform in…

As the ongoing national indicator of what American students know and can do, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading regularly collects achievement information on representative samples of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Through "The Nation's Report Card," the NAEP Reading Assessment reports how well students…

In this article we describe the development, analysis, and interpretation of a novel item format we call Ordered Multiple-Choice (OMC). A unique feature of OMC items is that they are linked to a model of student cognitive development for the construct being measured. Each of the possible answer choices in an OMC item is linked to developmental…

The selection of wrong answers for multiple choice tests appears not to be blind guessing, as the current theory assumes, but represents systematic choice based upon the ways in which learners extract meaning and solve problems. It appears the departures from "expected" answers arise when the learner interprets the question in a manner different…