Scholars have lamented that current methods of assessing student performance do not align with contemporary views of learning as situated within students, contexts, and time. Here, we introduce and describe one theoretical--psychometric paradigm--termed "dynamic measurement"--designed to provide a valid representation of the way students…

Trying to understand PISA is analogous to the parable of the blind men and the elephant. There are many facets of the PISA program, and thus many ways to both applaud and critique this ambitious international program of assessment that has gained enormous importance in the crafting of contemporary educational policy. One of the facets discussed in…

Learning Disabilities (LDs) affect a significant number of students in elementary and secondary school. In order for these students, along with parents and teachers, to understand the nature of their specific difficulties, and have equal opportunity in academic settings, a comprehensive psychological report containing properly informed…

The rank-ordering method for standard maintaining was designed for the purpose of mapping a known cut-score (e.g. a grade boundary mark) on one test to an equivalent point on the test score scale of another test, using holistic expert judgements about the quality of exemplars of examinees' work (scripts). It is a novel application of an old…

Validity is a critically important issue with far-reaching implications for testing. The history of conceptualizations of validity over the past 50 years is reviewed, and 3 important areas of controversy are examined. First, the question of whether the three traditionally recognized types of validity should be integrated as a unitary entity of…

This report compares the assumptions and values embedded in scoring criteria used in five states (Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oregon, and Vermont) for alternate assessments of students with significant cognitive disabilities. The five states use different alternate assessment approaches, including portfolio assessment, performance assessment,…

Validation issues that arise with measures of constructs and behavior are addressed with reference to general reasons for using assessment procedures in clinical psychology. A distinction is made between the representational phase of validity assessment and the elaborative validity phase in which the meaning and utility of scores are examined.…

When item response data do not satisfy the unidimensionality assumption, multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) should be used to model the item-examinee interaction. This article presents and discusses MIRT analyses designed to give better insight into what individual items are measuring. (SLD)

Principal components analysis of standardization sample data for the Comprehensive Test of Adaptive Behavior, involving 6,647 persons with mental retardation, found that a single factor accounted for 86 percent of the variance in category scores. Use of the Total Score and idiographic item clusters is psychometrically preferable to use of category…

The Personal Profile System (PPS) is a self-referent device to measure behavioral responses of individuals on the dimensions of dominance, inducement of others, steadiness, and compliance. The PPS booklet contains: (1) a measurement device which generates scores for each dimension, (2) graphs for plotting obtained scores, (3) directions for…

Fictitious student evaluations of a faculty member's teaching performance are presented to the reader in an exercise in interpreting such information. Evaluator comments reveal a widespread divergence of views. (MSE)

The original factor structure of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist was cross-validated with a U.S. sample of 470 persons with moderate to profound mental retardation (27 percent nonambulatory). Results replicated previous findings, suggesting that the original five factors (irritability, lethargy, stereotypic behavior, hyperactivity, and…

The literature on validity provides much more guidance on how to collect various kinds of validity evidence than it does on which kinds of evidence to collect in specific cases. An argument-based approach to validation redresses the balance by linking the kinds of evidence needed to validate a test-score interpretation to the details of the…

Two studies investigated upper elementary school students' informal understanding of sampling issues in the context of interpreting and evaluating survey results. The specific focus was on the children's evaluation of sampling methods and means of drawing conclusions from multiple surveys. In Study 1, 17 children were individually interviewed to…

Two easy-to-use microcomputer programs, the Student Problem Package and the Test Analysis Package, both by D. L. Harnisch et al. (1985), are described. These programs efficiently analyze test data for teachers. (SLD)