Neil Dorans has made a career of advocating for the examinee. He continues to do so in his NCME career award address, providing a thought-provoking commentary on some current trends in educational measurement that could potentially affect the integrity of test scores. Concerns expressed in the address call attention to a conundrum that faces…

The accuracy of CAT scores can be negatively affected by local dependence if the CAT utilizes parameters that are misspecified due to the presence of local dependence and/or fails to control for local dependence in responses during the administration stage. This article evaluates the existence and effect of local dependence in a test of…

Computer administered tests are becoming increasingly prevalent as computer technology becomes more readily available on a large scale. For testing programs that utilize both computer and paper administrations, mode effects are problematic in that they can result in examinee scores that are artificially inflated or deflated. As such, researchers…

This paper considers differences in modes of test administration, addressing three questions: (1) Do examinees respond to items in the same way across administration modes and computer interface variations? (2) What are some of the factors that can contribute to modal effects? and (3) Can item parameters calibrated from paper and pencil…