Background/Context: Pass/fail standardized exams frequently selectively rescore failing exams and retest failing examinees. This practice distorts the test score distribution and can confuse those who do analysis on these distributions. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal showed large discontinuities in the New York City Regent test score…

The Quality Control (QC) Guidelines are intended to increase the efficiency, precision, and accuracy of the scoring, analysis, and reporting process of testing. The QC Guidelines focus on large-scale testing operations where multiple forms of tests are created for use on set dates. However, they may also be used for a wide variety of other testing…

Cultural consensus theory (CCT) is a data aggregation technique with many applications in the social and behavioral sciences. We describe the intuition and theory behind a set of CCT models for continuous type data using maximum likelihood inference methodology. We describe how bias parameters can be incorporated into these models. We introduce…

As part of the Race to the Top initiative, the United States Department of Education made nearly 1 billion dollars available in State Educational Technology grants with the goal of ramping up school technology. One result of this effort is that states, districts, and schools across the country are using computerized assessments to measure their…

Alternative approaches are discussed for use of e-rater[R] to score the TOEFL iBT[R] Writing test. These approaches involve alternate criteria. In the 1st approach, the predicted variable is the expected rater score of the examinee's 2 essays. In the 2nd approach, the predicted variable is the expected rater score of 2 essay responses by the…

There has been little discussion of two conventions common within classroom assessment: the convention of representing student's performance on an assessment using a single score; and the convention of using the average score to summarize a student's performance over a set of assessments. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the assumptions…

This paper addresses practical Army problems in reading assessment from a theory base reflecting the most recent research on reading comprehension. Military and occupational research shows that reading proficiency is related to job performance. Reading assessment is a key issue in the Army due to changes in the reading ability levels of the Army…

This book contrasts non-Soviet approaches to language testing and provides definitions from four Soviet language test experts. The role of foreign language teaching, the function of tests, and theoretical problems are discussed, with considerable focus on communicative competence. The book discusses test standardization and classification and…

Explores what some deem the best way to objectively determine what a student knows. Adaptive Testing has been around since the early 1900's, but only with the advent of computers has it been effectively applied to day to day educational management. Cites a pilot study in Portland, Oregon, public schools. (MVL)

Reviews the literature on subgroup norming in testing and examines several types of score-adjustment methods. The authors discuss social and policy perspectives as well as the scientific and theoretical underpinnings of score adjustment. (GLR)