This digest presents a list of recommendations for writing multiple-choice test items, based on psychometrics statistics are typically provided by a measurement, or test scoring, service, where tests are machine-scored or by testing software packages. Test makers can capitalize on the fact that "bad" items can be differentiated from…

Current practices for assessment of language in bilingual students frequently involve the use of tests translated from English to the target language or tests designed for, and normed on, monolingual people. This Digest explains why these common approaches are not well suited for a bilingual population and provides guidance regarding more suitable…

Psychological services have been part of the American schooling experiences for nearly a century. The nature of school psychology services, however, has changed dramatically over the decades so that modern school psychology services differ significantly from their roots. For much of this century school psychology services have emphasized…

Meta-analysis is a collection of systematic techniques for resolving apparent contradictions in research findings. Meta-analysts translate results from different studies to a common metric and statistically explore the relations between study characteristics and findings. Since G. Glass first used the term "meta-analysis" in 1976, it has…

This digest presents a list of recommendations for writing multiple-choice test items, based on psychometrics and logical deduction. Questions should ask more than mere knowledge of facts and should not contain superfluous information as an introduction to the question. Each question should focus on some specific aspect of the course, and the item…

In this report four educators discuss the issues which they see to be most current in the fields of testing, measurement and evaluation. The first section discusses the mastery of basic skills, defined by minimum levels of competence. Factors such as accountability, social policy, instructional implications, and psychometric issues are brought to…