While score comparability across test forms typically relies on common (or randomly equivalent) examinees or items, innovations in item formats, test delivery, and efforts to extend the range of score interpretation may require a special data collection before examinees or items can be used in this way--or may be incompatible with common examinee…

Assessing the achievement of students in elementary and secondary schools and the nation's educational progress is fundamental to informing education policy approaches. Congressional interest in this area includes and extends beyond the annual assessments administered by states to comply with the educational accountability requirements of Title…

This paper illustrates that the psychometric properties of scores and scales that are used with mixed-format educational tests can impact the use and interpretation of the scores that are reported to examinees. Psychometric properties that include reliability and conditional standard errors of measurement are considered in this paper. The focus is…

Assessing a high school's effectiveness is not straightforward. Comparing a school's standardized test scores to those of other schools is one approach to measuring effectiveness, but a major objection to this method is that students' test scores tend to be related to students' "socioeconomic" status--family household income, for…

Despite decades of research and debate, the issue of unequal outcomes continues to be a concern in educational systems worldwide. In England, published data relating to pupils' attainment across ethnic groups and by class indicators has been used to demonstrate continued inequalities in schools. This article attempts to deconstruct the…

Much of the argument about comparability of examination standards is at cross-purposes; contradictory positions are in fact often both defensible, but they are using the same words to mean different things. To clarify this, two broad conceptualisations of standards can be identified. One sees the standard in the observed phenomena of performance…

Robert Coe has claimed that three broad conceptions of comparability can be identified from the literature: performance, statistical and conventional. Each of these he rejected, in favour of a single, integrated conception which relies upon the notion of a "linking construct" and which he termed "construct comparability".…

The report, "Evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress", provides a number of recommendations for addressing validity concerns about NAEP. This article identifies actions that could be taken by the Congress, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Assessment Governing Board--which share responsibility for…

A computer program is described which provides comprehensive information on test profile differences among independent groups based upon profile centroid separation, shape, elevation, and scatter. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate measures of strength of association, test of homogeneity of covariance matrices, and comparative…

The microcomputer version of the Ohio Vocational Interest Survey (OVIS II) differs from the machine-scored version in its ability to incorporate data from the OVIS II:Career Planner in its printed report. It differs from the hand-scored version in its ability to include data from the OVIS II:Work Characteristic Analysis in its printed report.…

The article discusses issues relating to the international use of personality inventories, especially those in which organizations make comparisons between people from differing cultures or countries or those with different languages. The focus is on the issue of norming and the use of national versus multinational norms. It is noted that…

A conceptual analysis of gain scores and a technically sound procedure for using such scores to compare different instructional programs are presented. The procedure proposed makes use of an index called Rescaled and Adjusted Gains within Strata (RAGS), together with a flexible but explicit procedure for score analysis and reporting. (LC)

A table was produced to facilitate comparisons among standard scores on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised, in order to assist diagnosticians in determining intraindividual strengths and weaknesses, and thus contribute to instructional planning. (DB)

Two assessment agencies, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the U.S. and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), provide the most promising framework for comparing U.S. education with education in other nations. These agencies can cooperate to resolve technical issues and make data…

New Hampshire has adopted a standards-based statewide assessment, the New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program (NHEIAP), which is designed to measure students' learning against proficiency standards at grades 3, 6, and 10. Because of the difficulty teachers had in interpreting the NHEIAP results, a custom-designed software…