The existence of outliers in the anchor items can be detrimental to the estimation of examinee ability and undermine the validity of score interpretation across forms. However, in practice, anchor item performance can become distorted due to various reasons. This study compares the performance of modified "INFIT" and "OUTFIT"…

In multiple-choice tests, the quality of distractors may be more important than their number. We therefore examined the joint influence of distractor quality and quantity on test functioning by providing a sample of 5,793 participants with five parallel test sets consisting of items that differed in the number and quality of distractors.…

Federal policy on alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) inspired this research. Specifically, an experimental study was conducted to determine whether tests composed of modified items would have the same level of reliability as tests composed of original items, and whether these modified items helped reduce…

This article examined two item-writing guidelines: the format of the item stem and homogeneity of the answer set. Answering the call of Haladyna, Downing, and Rodriguez (2002) for empirical tests of item writing guidelines and extending the work of Smith and Smith (1988) on differential use of item characteristics, a mock multiple-choice driver's…

The effect of using statistical and cognitive item difficulty to determine item order on multiple-choice tests was examined, using 120 undergraduate students. Students performed better when items were ordered by increasing cognitive difficulty rather than decreasing difficulty. The statistical ordering of difficulty had little effect on…

An experiment is reported in which 225 high school students were asked to choose among several multiple-choice items but then were required to answer them all. It is concluded that allowing choice while having fair tests is only possible when choice is irrelevant in terms of difficulty. (SLD)

The recommendation that the reliability of multiple-choice tests will be enhanced if the distribution of item difficulties is concentrated at approximately 0.50 is reinforced and extended in this article by viewing the 0/1 item scoring as a dichotomization of an underlying normally distributed ability score. (SLD)

The use of the "none-of-the-above" option (NOTA) in 20 college-level multiple-choice tests was evaluated for classes with 100 or more students. Eight academic disciplines were represented, and 295 NOTA and 724 regular test items were used. It appears that the NOTA can be compatible with good classroom measurement. (TJH)