With the growing attention on large-scale educational testing and assessment, the ability to process substantial volumes of response data becomes crucial. Current estimation methods within item response theory (IRT), despite their high precision, often pose considerable computational burdens with large-scale data, leading to reduced computational…

The tests we use to evaluate student achievement may well be sound measures of what students know, but they are faulty indicators at best of how well they have been taught. A remedy to this this situation of judging teachers by the performance of their students on high-stakes tests may be in hand already. We should look to the methods successfully…

The commentary (1) uses the U. S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as a prototype for examining standardized reading achievement tests at the item level, and (2) sketches an alternative based on an initiative underway in the United Kingdom.

Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I…

The present highly developed status of psychological and educational testing in the United States is in part the result of many efforts over the past 100 years to develop economical and reliable methods of scoring. The present article traces a number of methods, ranging from hand scoring to present-day computer applications, stimulated by the need…

In the summer of 2011, the Tennessee Department of Education contracted with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to provide a four-day training for all evaluators across the state. NIET trained more than 5,000 evaluators intensively in the state model (districts using alternative instruments delivered their own training).…

Five alternatives to standardized testing of student achievement are described in this brief overview. The first, criterion-referenced tests, are designed to evaluate the accomplishment of specifically stated instructional objectives. Student performance is judged on the basis of the objectives, rather than in comparison to other students taking…

An alternative method for measuring student achievement is suggested, using a combination of teacher statements, classroom observations, current questionnaires, oral and written tests, work samples, previous tests, school records, and child interviews. (MJB)

The increasing relation between domain-referenced measurement and its implications in instruction are discussed with the argument that construction methods available do not guarantee content validity which needs more attention to be effective. Two domain-referenced testing procedures illustrate construction and validity problems. (CM)

Focusing on the use of "paper and pencil" criterion-referenced tests in educational measurement, and to correct misconceptions, the definitions of basic terms and historical antecedents are discussed. Classifications of the tests are compared with other achievement tests. The phases in developing criterion-referenced tests are presented with the…

Presents microcomputer-based test scoring procedure with focus on measuring student information, partial information, and misinformation based on an information theoretic approach model of knowledge assessment. Admissible probability measurement scoring procedure described removes the constraint of forced choices, where guesses are based on…

This document contains three papers from the Test Use Project of the Center for the Study of Evaluation. A preliminary assessment model is described in the first paper, "Contextual Examination of Test Use: The Test, the Setting, the Cost" by J. Herman and J. Yeh. Empirical findings are sought about the nature of testing and its actual…

Northampton County Area Community College (Pennsylvania) studied changes in student writing ability using a research paradigm described in the ERIC Clearinghouse for Junior Colleges' fifth topical paper (ED 030 422). Students in seven English classes were randomly assigned to write on one of two topics at the beginning of the semester, and asked…

Describes evolving trends in testing, including such topics as formative versus summative evaluations; the use of tests as a guide to instructional decision making; the need to focus on higher level cognitive skills; and the role of computers in testing. An annotated bibliography lists 10 relevant journal articles. (CLB)