Describes Florida's efforts at instituting statewide item banking and testing program in vocational education. Discusses rationale for statewide testing program and item banking procedure as well as development and coding of items, dissemination of item bank to school districts, and development of statewide test. Outlines problems encountered,…

This paper describes an assessment and evaluation effort occurring in the context of a middle school science curriculum development effort known as Learning by Design (LBD). The LBD approach builds on a body of cognitive science and professional education research that emphasizes learning from problem-solving experience. The assessment and…

The National Board of Medical Examiners uses the Rasch model to calibrate test items, maintain item banks, equate scores, and monitor the consistency of examiner item response patterns. The model is also being used in the study of patient management problems examinations, standard-setting, and computer-based examinations. (Author/BS)

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss some of the problems presented by the use of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) in an instructional programs environment versus large scale testing applications, and to describe an actual implementation of CAT in an instructional programs setting. This particular application is in the…

This report describes the sequence of activities that took place as the Examination Division of the New Jersey Department of Civil Service introduced a word processing system for a test item bank and for production of camera-ready test copy. The equipment selection, installation and orientation procedures are discussed. Keyboard and CRT terminals,…

Describes procedure for combining Stanford Achievement Test items with local supplementary items to measure individual and aggregate student performance in mathematics. Two reports are generated from the test results: a diagnostic report of student mastery of each objective and an overall score. (TE)

This paper presents an explanation of the program design of the three separate Pascal-language programs which comprise UCLA's Diagnostic Testing Package "DX." The three parts of the DX test package are three closely interrelated programs--Editest, Runtest, and Summary. Editest serves the following functions: (1) the creation of a…

The Mathematics Achievement Test Project (MATP) was set up by the Learning Assessment Branch of the Ministry of Education of British Columbia to develop testing materials to assist teachers throughout the province in the task of evaluating students' performance in mathematics. The two major objectives of the project were to construct "banks" of…

This paper describes the development of the Basic Educational Skills Test (BEST) in the Austin Independent School District. In 1982 future options for the AISD minimum competency program, which requires all students to meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics before graduation, were evaluated against legal and local criteria. It…

Describes advantages and disadvantages of computer-assisted foreign language testing, including unique capabilities of the computer, types of tests possible, limitations, problems, and language skill testing. The Spanish Computer Adaptive Placement Examination, developed at Brigham Young University (Utah), is described. (CB)

This document describes the principles of the basic testing program of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) and reports results in detail for the year 1978-79. Included are (1) the procedures used in developing the tests, (2) the statistical characteristics of the tests, (3) the methods employed in analyzing the findings, and (4)…

Before an item bank is constructed, several curriculum and testing considerations should be addressed. Such issues include the number of students enrolled in the selected subject area; number of desired objectives and items per objective; method of storing the items; and how and when to train how many teachers in item writing. The following steps…

The Teacher Evaluation and Assessment Center (TEAC) was established by the Department of Education at the University of South Florida in 1984 to serve the state in the certification of trainers and observers of the Florida Performance Measurement System (FPMS) and to score and report performance evaluations for special programs. This report…

This report and compilation of papers summarizes information collected by an Assessment Development and Use Project, initiated by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) to assist test development efforts by state and local agencies. Specific item banking applications are reported in two case studies, selected because they represent…

The process of development of tests for teacher certification in Tennessee is described. In response to the Tennessee Comprehensive Education Reform Act of 1984 requiring the use of tests for individuals seeking initial teacher licensure, the Department of Education identified 12 areas of teacher endorsement for which no currently validated and…