The concept of teacher accountability assumes teachers will use data-driven decision making to plan and deliver appropriate and effective instruction to their students. In order to do so, teachers must be able to accurately interpret the data that is given to them, and that requires the knowledge of some basic concepts of assessment and…

Federal education legislation continues to emphasize the role of assessment in elementary and secondary schools. Perhaps most prominently, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95), requires the use of test-based educational accountability systems in states and specifies the…

The State of New York Agriculture Science Education secondary program is required to have a certification exam for students to assess their agriculture science education experience as a Regent's requirement towards graduation. This paper focuses on the procedure used to develop and validate two content sub-test questions within a…

The experience of the International Society of Addiction Medicine in setting up the first international certification of clinical knowledge is reported. The steps followed and the results of a psychometric analysis of the tests from the first 65 candidates are reported. Lessons learned in the first 5 years and challenges for the future are…

Standards-based reform, as codified by the No Child Left Behind Act, relies on the ability of assessments to accurately reflect the learning that takes place in U.S. classrooms. However, this property of assessments--their instructional sensitivity--is rarely, if ever, investigated by test developers, states, or researchers. In this paper, the…

The GED[R] English as a Second Language (GED ESL) Test was designed to serve as an adjunct to the GED test battery when an examinee takes either the Spanish- or French-language version of the tests. The GED ESL Test is a criterion-referenced, multiple-choice instrument that assesses the functional, English reading skills of adults whose first…

Accurate measures of youth fitness are needed by researchers and practitioners. Evidence of validity and reliability are essential before results of youth fitness tests can be used to make sound decisions. This article describes a three-stage paradigm for validation research and provides guidance for conducting and understanding norm-referenced…

Discussion of testing methods that adequately measure the ability to perform manipulative tasks focuses on criterion-referenced performance tests (CRPT) to evaluate trainees. Topics discussed include predictive validity; physical fidelity; test construction; testing constraints; performance conditions; criteria for attainment standards; scoring…

This article reports that more colleges are dropping the SAT as a requirement for admission and, in many cases, these institutions are attracting a larger and more diverse pool of applicants. According to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), 740 schools have made the SATs optional. The list includes some of the nation's most…

The discrete dynamical system of absolute differences defined by the map [psi]( x[subscript 1] , x[subscript 2] , x[subscript 3] , x[subscript 4] ) = ([vertical line] x[subscript 2] - x[subscript 1] [vertical line], [vertical line] x[subscript 3] - x[subscript 2] [vertical line], [vertical line] x[subscript 4] - x[subscript 3] [vertical line],…

The relationship between instruction and a test is defined as a parallel content-valid relation. This article describes the PLANA procedure, which approaches the problem of content validity by applying constructional rules for producing or judging the content validity relationship between the instructional objective and the items. (BW)

Health education researchers have occasionally used measuring tools inappropriately. Test validity and the use of criterion-referenced tests are discussed in view of this need to improve health education research. Also described are handbooks containing measuring devices for the use of health education researchers. (CJ)

Classroom assessment information should be the basis for important classroom processes and outcomes: students' study and work patterns, students' understanding of what they are learning, and teachers' instructional and grading decisions. Attention to principles of assessment quality, especially validity and reliability, increases confidence in the…

This paper discusses technical issues related to methods of reporting the outcomes of graded tests, with reference to three existing schemes which exemplify differing graded test models. The models are designed for secondary school pupils and are operated in one or more Local Education Authorities in the South of England. (LMO)

This paper discusses the validity of test preparation practices in the context of large-scale norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. It presents a framework for conceptualizing the various aspects of test preparation that includes the basic premises underlying the validity of the practices. Five areas of test preparation are outlined: (1)…