Items on test score scales located at and below the Proficient cut score define the content area knowledge and skills required to achieve proficiency. Alternately, examinees who perform at the Proficient level on a test can be expected to be able to demonstrate that they have mastered most of the knowledge and skills represented by the items at…

A new approach for examining the quality of judgments from standard-setting judges using a Binomial Trials Model (BTM) is presented and illustrated with 26 judges from the Georgia High School Graduation Test. Results suggest that the BTM provides information not available from other methods. (SLD)

Large-scale testing programs often require multiple forms to maintain test security over time or to enable the measurement of change without repeating the identical questions. The comparability of scores across forms is consequential: Students are admitted to colleges based on their test scores, and the meaning of a given scale score one year …

A critical, but often neglected, component of any large-scale assessment program is the reporting of test results. In the past decade, a body of evidence has been compiled that raises concerns over the ways in which these results are reported to and understood by their intended audiences. In this study, current approaches for reporting…

Examined reports by mathematics teachers of their degree of familiarity with various standards and assessments, then compared these reports with teachers' reports of their instructional practices in the classroom. Teacher awareness of state curriculum guides and state assessments has increased since 1995. (SLD)

Administering a large scale licensing examination program presents both technical and non-technical challenges. Five major areas are discussed in this paper: (1) ensuring test validity in relation to occupational entry standards; (2) developing test items from valid examination specifications; (3) establishing legally defensible passing scores;…

This paper reports the results of a survey conducted in the spring of l981 that was designed to collect and summarize guidelines on appropriate test use from the various organizations, agencies, and associations involved in standardized educational testing. The primary objective of the study was to learn how these various groups define the issues…

As almost every state attempts to reform mathematics instruction by implementing new teaching standards, state testing practices remain largely unchanged. Is there a mismatch between these new standards and the old tests? This question is investigated by examining whether middle school and high school algebra students taught in a manner consistent…

The Bookmark Standard Setting Procedure (Lewis, Mitzel, and Green, 1996) is an item-response-theory-based standard setting method that has been widely implemented by state testing programs. The primary purposes of this study were to: (1) estimate standard errors for cutscores that result from Bookmark standard settings under a generalizability…

Analyses of 10 raters' reasoning during think-aloud interviews provided evidence to support a model of the fundamental processes involved in rating standards-based, nonprescriptive portfolios. This process model provides a framework within which to conceptualize sound-rater reasoning and to identify reasoning that distorts the meaning of scores.…

The current New Jersey high school graduation law requires that students pass a ninth grade test in reading, writing, and mathematics. Equating the writing test from year to year to be sure that passing scores remain identical, regardless of the test form administered, requires developing a scoring technique. A research study was developed based…

The assumptions that high-stakes testing is useful in raising educational standards for all students and that higher standards lead to higher educational performance for all students have not been tested in schools along the Texas border with Mexico. This study analyzed the effects of the high-stakes testing policy on students in a small rural…

The annual report on achievement testing in Alberta (Canada) includes test results for third-grade students in language learning (for the regular English program), sixth-grade students in social studies, and ninth-grade students in science. Results are regarded in terms of curriculum standards, assessment standards, and achievement standards.…

This three-part document provides strategies for evaluating the impact of a province-wide testing program in Ontario (Canada) and reviews the literature on the impact of testing. Part One identifies the effects of province-wide examinations for selected high school courses and proposes four studies to monitor these effects: (1) an analysis of data…

A general overview of the Cooperative Assessment of Experiential Learning's Operational Models project is presented. The information is intended to aid other institutions in developing a similar model. Three papers are included: Developing an Operational Model for Assessing Experiential Learning by Warren W. Willingham and Kurt F. Geisinger,…