The arrangement of response options in multiple-choice (MC) items, especially the location of the most attractive distractor, is considered critical in constructing high-quality MC items. In the current study, a sample of 496 undergraduate students taking an educational assessment course was given three test forms consisting of the same items but…

We present a question bank consisting of over 250 multiple-choice and true--false questions covering a broad range of material typically taught in an introductory undergraduate course in numerical analysis or computational science. The questions are ideal for polling students during lectures by means of a student response system that uses…

Using Item Response Theory (IRT) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the goal of this study was to select a reduced pool of items from the French Canadian version of the Self-Directed Search--Activities Section (Holland, Fritzsche, & Powell, 1994). Two studies were conducted. Results of Study 1, involving 727 French Canadian students,…

Automatic item generation represents a relatively new but rapidly evolving research area where cognitive and psychometric theories are used to produce tests that include items generated using computer technology. Automatic item generation requires two steps. First, test development specialists create item models, which are comparable to templates…

Criteria had been proposed for assessing the severity of possible test security violations for computerized tests with high-stakes outcomes. However, these criteria resulted from theoretical derivations that assumed uniformly randomized item selection. This study investigated potential damage caused by organized item theft in computerized adaptive…

Item banks for use in developing tests keyed to the provincial mathematics curriculum were developed at the grade 3/4, 7/8, 10/11 levels. The Rasch model calibrated all items. The banks have been used to produce 11 Ministry of Education tests and as a source for the 1981 B.C. Mathematics Assessment. (BRR)

Robitaille and O'Shea used the Rasch model in developing a set of 40-item mathematics achievement tests. The Rasch model is inappropriate for such a purpose; their article presents the model in a too favorable light and continued application of the model encourages less desirable educational practice and misdirects scarce resources. (BRR)

Studied the match between the Ontario (Canada) eighth grade curriculum for 1997 and the item pool of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and analyzed the matching process itself. Findings show that the 1997 curriculum is a better match to the TIMSS item pool, achieving the better match by enlarging the curriculum and…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the assessment procedures initiated and used by most Canadian provinces during the past decade to describe public school reading achievement, to identify commonalities and differences among those procedures, and to comment on the significance of the identified trends. The stated purposes of evaluation…

Item banks and computer-generated tests in a Canadian community college's computerized testing system were evaluated and student and faculty attitudes surveyed. Item banks were found inadequate, tests addressed low-level learning outcomes, and the system's location in centralized administration gave instructional staff little ownership or…

A model for evaluation of complex educational settings is proposed. The model covers measurement, judgment, and decision making and the related criteria of reliability, validity, and utility. A second proposed model depicts the provincial educational setting. The development of a provincial item bank illustrates the application of the models. (TJH)

The absence of suitable instruments to measure scientific inquiry skills, and the inability of teachers to construct their own tests to measure mastery of science skills led the Peterborough County (Ontario) Board of Education to develop skill-oriented curriculum guidelines in response to changes in Ministry of Education priorities in science.…

The project reported on here was established to develop an item pool to reflect the universe of content set down in "Education in the Primary and Junior Division" (EPJD), which was adopted by the Ontario Ministry of Education in 1975 to provide a general framework for the justification of curricular decisions; to provide a curriculum…

The Mathematics Evaluation Materials Package (MEMP) is a set of objectives and companion test items for mathematics education in Grades 4 to 6. Developed for classroom use in a setting that emphasizes increased teacher and principal decision-making and flexible curricular guidelines, it distinguishes itself from other evaluation devices in the…