Participants in achievement tests or psychometric scales can be naturally divided into various sub-groups such as gender, race, social economic status, school district, etc. In order to make meaningful comparison between groups, each item in the test/scale should measure the same underlying construct for participants came from different groups.…

The most familiar models of item response theory are defined at the level of individual subjects. It is possible, however, to define such models for groups of subjects. This paper discusses group-level item response models, their uses, and their relationships to subject-level models. (Author/JKS)

Technical considerations associated with item selection and reliability assessment are considered in relation to criterion-referenced tests constructed to provide group information. The purpose is to emphasize test building and the evaluation of test scores in program evaluation studies. It is stressed that an evaluator employ a performance or…

The National Education Association's Task Force on Testing has stated its opinion that standardized tests are overused. The task force suggests that the application of sampling techniques and a variety of alternatives to current testing practices would accomplish the same purposes. Representatives of the testing industry have indicated that the…

The concept of tailored testing for individuals is applied to the construction of tests for special groups and extended to apply to item content as well as item difficulty. It is suggested that evaluators may decide to construct tests on the basis of a unique combination of items drawn from an item bank to fit the need of a particular group. At…

An achievement testing framework is being developed by the Los Angeles Unified School District to assess the educational progress of 14,000 secondary level compensatory education students with something other than standardized tests. The technique of multiple matrix sampling was applied to the use of large item domains in the subject area of…