Four considerations that enhance the instructional importance of tests are content match, use of feedback, a flagging function, and the increasing tendency to attach sanctions and rewards to standardized test results. These sanctions are apt to force greater attention to the other three characteristics, strengthening the links between instruction…

An ignored aspect of standard setting, namely the possibility that Angoff or Nedelsky judges specify inconsistent probabilities (e.g., low probabilities for easy items but large probabilities for hard items) is explored. A latent trait method is proposed to estimate such misspecifications, and an index of consistency is defined. (Author/PN)