This report, which is based on an invited presentation given at the 2015 meeting of the Association of Test Publishers, is a response to the continuing proliferation of scale linking studies that have occurred since the publication of "Uncommon Measures" in 1999.The report has four parts. First, I restate the conclusions made in…

One of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act that has gained prominence as a policy focus only in the last several years is the requirement that poor and minority children be served by highly qualified teachers to no less a degree than other, more affluent children. Under the Obama administration, the focus on "highly qualified"…

This study is an evaluation of the psychometric issues associated with estimating objective level scores, often referred to as "subscores." The article begins by introducing the concepts of reliability and validity for subscores from statewide achievement tests. These issues are discussed with reference to popular scaling techniques, classical…

Test developers are responsible to define how test scores should be interpreted and used. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) directed the Secretary of Education to use results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to confirm the proficiency scores from state developed tests. There are two sets of federal definitions…

Investigated how well the generalized and Rasch models described item and test performance across a broad range of mixed-item-format test configurations (six tests from two state proficiency testing programs). Evaluating the impact of model assumptions on the predictions of item and test information permitted a delineation of the implications of…

Under the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), Title I programs are evaluated using standards-based multiple measures. In California, school systems would like to use state standards for the evaluation, but state performance standards are still under development and content standards are very new. The Sacramento City Schools (California) has…

This study compared scores on the Indiana Statewide Test for Educational Progress (ISTEP) for students who received implementation of the Shurley Method program with those of students who did not receive the program. The Shurley method, developed by B. Shurley, is a language skills teaching method aimed at students of all learning styles that…

The Wisconsin legislature has required the Department of Public Instruction to adopt or approve standardized tests for statewide use to measure student attainment of knowledge and concepts in grades 4, 8, and 10. Although school districts generally gave high ratings to the contents of TerraNova (McGraw Hill), the testing instrument most recently…

The U.S. Department of Education has not yet published an official guidance document for using NAEP achievement level scores to confirm state testing results. A review of the literature, however, identified four principles that inform the valid use of NAEP scores in a confirming analysis. The principles address the appropriate NAEP statistics to…

Multiple measures may mean multiple opportunities to show achievement or the use of multiple assessment formats. A third meaning is the use of assessments from different sources, such as augmenting an external, usually commercial assessment with a state's own assessment. The first two meanings of multiple assessments have been explored…

The National Assessment Governing Board has recognized the need to study associated policy and technical issues to ensure that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is ready to do the best job possible if called on to confirm the results of state achievement testing under the No Child Left Behind Act. This report describes the…

The relationships between ratings on the Idaho Alternate Assessment (IAA) for 116 students with significant disabilities and corresponding ratings for the same students on two norm-referenced teacher rating scales were examined to gain evidence about the validity of resulting IAA scores. To contextualize these findings, another group of 54…

This report examines the overlap between student test results on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). The two tests were compared and contrasted in terms of content and measurement philosophy, and analyses studied the statistical relationship between the ITBS and the WASL. The ITBS assesses…

The Missouri Mastery and Achievement Tests (MMAT) were developed as a result of the state's Excellence in Education Act of 1985, which called for assessments of core competencies and key skills in reading/language arts/English, mathematics, science, and social studies/civics. The revised MMAT, like the original test, includes four multiple-choice…

Studied a policy requiring students to obtain a specified level of performance on a state's reading proficiency test. Analyses of the scores of 5,611 students show a high degree of agreement among educators' judgments and students' performance, but they also show that educators' operational definitions of adequate preparation in reading vary in…