One of the substantive changes in the 2014 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing was the elevation of fairness in testing as a foundational element of practice in addition to validity and reliability. Previous research indicates that testing practices often do not align with professional standards and guidelines. Therefore, to raise…

A multistage adaptive testing (MST) design was implemented for the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) starting in 2012 for about 40 countries and has been implemented for the 2018 cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for more than 80 countries. Using examples from PISA and PIAAC,…

For many years, reading comprehension in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was measured via paper-based assessment (PBA). In the 2015 cycle, computer-based assessment (CBA) was introduced, raising the question of whether central equivalence criteria required for a valid interpretation of the results are fulfilled. As an…

The article reviews research and findings on problems and issues faced when translating international academic achievement tests. The purpose is to draw attention to the problems, to help to develop the procedures followed when translating the tests, and to provide suggestions for further research. The problems concentrate on the following: the…

Examinees who take high-stakes assessments are usually given an opportunity to repeat the test if they are unsuccessful on their initial attempt. To prevent examinees from obtaining unfair score increases by memorizing the content of specific test items, testing agencies usually assign a different test form to repeat examinees. The use of multiple…

Many educational testing programs report examinee performance at more than two levels of proficiency. Whether these assessments have the capacity to support these multiple inferences, though, is a topic that has not been widely discussed. This study proposes a method for evaluating the minimum number of measurement opportunities for reporting…

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…

The development of a hypothetical testing program designed to provide optimum information about student achievement is chronicled. Computer adaptive testing and performance testing are postulated as part of the program. What optimum information really means is discussed. Optimum is only optimal when theory and application are balanced. (SLD)

Two achievement testing programs in New York City that have had and are having some consequences are described, and how the school system tries to determine and deal with these consequences is explored. Cooperation and open dialog between test publishers and the school district are making it possible to deal with the real-life problems of test…

The author argues that scoring, reporting, and deriving final grades can be considerably assisted by using a computer. He also contends that the savings in time and the computer database formed will allow instructors to determine test quality and reflect on the quality of instruction. (BW)

The increased use of test scores as a measure of school quality is discussed. Legitimate and illegitimate practices of test preparation are considered. Some commercial test preparation programs are reviewed, with some conclusions about their effectiveness and desirability. (SLD)

This article presents findings from two projects designed to improve evaluations of technical quality of alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. We argue that assessment technical documents should allow for the evaluation of the construct validity of the alternate assessments following the traditions of…

Differences between national testing as discussed in the most recent report of the National Council on Education, Standards, and Testing, and by the Office of Technology Assessment are reviewed. National testing is not new, but the political use of nationally standardized achievement tests is a recent and dangerous trend. (SLD)

The scales of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), as constructed, do not yield meaningful criterion-referenced interpretations. Poorly defined NAEP goals and the present knowledge base do not allow the measurement of what examinees can and cannot do. Inappropriate interpretations of NAEP data are discussed, with specific…

In most large-scale assessments of student achievement, several broad content domains are tested. Because more items are needed to cover the content domains than can be presented in the limited testing time to each individual student, multiple test forms or booklets are utilized to distribute the items to the students. The construction of an…