In this article, the characteristics of five test review models are described. The five models are the US review system at the Buros Center for Testing, the German Test Review System of the Committee on Tests, the Brazilian System for the Evaluation of Psychological Tests, the European EFPA Review Model, and the Dutch COTAN Evaluation System for…

International comparative educational studies make use of test instruments originally developed in English by international panels of experts, but that are ultimately administered in the language of instruction of the students. The comparability of the different language versions of these assessments is a critical issue in validating the…

Examined the performance of Irish students on multiple-choice, short-answer, and extended-response item sets from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study to determine whether Ireland's relative rank among the more than 40 countries involved remained stable. Findings provide additional evidence that comparing student achievement…

Different methodologies for linking tests across languages are reviewed and evaluated, focusing on monolingual item response theory, bilingual group designs, and matched monolingual group designs. These methods, although not without weaknesses, are superior for promoting score comparability than methods that rely on translation or expert judgment…

Evaluating the comparability of a test administered in different languages is a difficult, if not impossible, task. Comparisons are problematic because observed differences in test performance between groups who take different language versions of a test could be due to a difference in difficulty between the tests, to cultural differences in test…

Data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were examined to determine the extent to which the rank ordering of countries based on pupil test performance was consistent across three different item formats: multiple-choice, short-answer, and extended-response. Findings from the analysis are used to make the case that…