The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with NWEA for the development of the 2024 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2024 Grades 6 and 7 English Language…

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with Questar Assessment Inc. (Questar) for the development of the 2020 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2020…

Standardized testing is ubiquitous in educational assessment, but questions have been raised about the extent to which these test scores accurately reflect students' genuine knowledge and skills. To more rigorously investigate this issue, the current study employed a within-subject experimental design to examine item format effects on primary…

Prior research suggests that males outperform females, on average, on multiple-choice items compared to their relative performance on constructed-response items. This paper characterizes the extent to which gender achievement gaps on state accountability tests across the United States are associated with those tests' item formats. Using roughly 8…

Prior research demonstrates the existence of gender achievement gaps and the variation in the magnitude of these gaps across states. This paper characterizes the extent to which the variation of gender achievement gaps on standardized tests across the United States can be explained by differing state accountability test formats. A comprehensive…

The population sensitivity of vertical scaling results was evaluated for a state reading assessment spanning grades 3-10 and a state mathematics test spanning grades 3-8. Subpopulations considered included males and females. The 3-parameter logistic model was used to calibrate math and reading items and a common item design was used to construct…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how photograph-based life science multiple-choice items influenced Louisiana science students' performance on statewide standardized tests, in comparison with text-based items about the same content. This mixed methodology research study focused primarily on types of multiple-choice items, specifically…

The proposition that the optimal number of options in a multiple choice test item is three was examined. The concept of functional distractor, a plausible wrong answer that is negatively discriminating when total test performance is the criterion, is discussed. Three distinct groups of achievers (high, middle, and low) on a national standardized…

The purpose of the bulletin is to provide information to teachers and students about the Social Studies 30 Diploma Examination for 1987. The information includes: (1) a description of the examination; 70 multiple-choice questions worth 70% of the total score and one essay worth 30%; (2) an outline of the objectives to be tested including…

Commercial achievement tests often provide limited instructional guidance and seldom provide feedback specific to any given classroom. The most instructionally relevant achievement tests are those developed by an individual teacher for use with a particular class. This digest describes the steps of test construction and presents suggestions for…

The booklet presents the two-part Grade 12 Diploma Examination for the Social Studies 30 program. Part 1 consists of 70 multiple-choice questions worth 70% of the total score. Each question has four choices and students must choose the one which best completes the statement or answers the question. Many questions are based on narratives,…

A review of the development and innovation of testing at the higher education level focuses on Ralph Tyler's testing emphasis on the educational process and the objectives of instruction, a precursor to the current trend of integrating formative evaluation into the curriculum development process. (CB)

The process proposed for the development and use of computer-based testing, including simulation and multiple-choice questions, as part of the National Board of Medical Examiners' certification sequence is outlined. Summary reports of first-phase pilot testing in six medical schools are appended. (MSE)

The combinational-format item (CFI)--multiple-choice item with combinations of alternatives presented as response choices--was studied to determine whether CFIs were different from regular multiple-choice items in item characteristics or in cognitive processing demands. Three undergraduate Foundations of Education classes (consisting of a total of…

Gender differences in English proficiency as a function of testing method were examined by comparing the scores of a representative sample of Swedish secondary school students who took the national English test. It found that boys performed better than girls on the multiple-choice part, whereas girls did better on the free-response part that…