The literature on Automated Essay Scoring (AES) systems has provided useful validation frameworks for any assessment that includes AES scoring. Furthermore, evidence for the scoring fidelity of AES systems is accumulating. Yet questions remain when appraising the scoring performance of AES systems. These questions include: (a) which essays are…

Bloom's taxonomy was adopted to create a subject-specific scoring tool for histology multiple-choice questions (MCQs). This Bloom's Taxonomy Histology Tool (BTHT) was used to analyze teacher- and student-generated quiz and examination questions from a graduate level histology course. Multiple-choice questions using histological images were…

Rationale is presented for the derivation of a new measure of stressful life events for use with students [Negative Life Events Scale for Students (NLESS)]. Ten stressful life events questionnaires were reviewed, and the more than 600 items mentioned in these scales were culled based on the following criteria: (a) only long-term and unpleasant…

Divergent thinking (DT) tests are very often used in creativity studies. Certainly DT does not guarantee actual creative achievement, but tests of DT are reliable and reasonably valid predictors of certain performance criteria. The validity of DT is described as reasonable because validity is not an all-or-nothing attribute, but is, instead, a…

The cloze procedure, initially proven to be an effective measure of passage difficulty, is currently used as an assessment technique and an instructional method for enhancing reading comprehension. Through the use of the cloze procedure educators are able to investigate closely the processes of reading comprehension. (Author)

One of the most important contentions of the Rasch model of item analysis is that two tests of the same trait, having some items in common, can be linked together using a "linking constant" derived from the common items. This would be accomplished by administering both tests to a sample of testees, calibrating the items of the tests…

Setting a cutting score is a key problem in criterion-referenced measurement which is discussed within a decision theoretic approach when just one student is considered. A minimum information solution is given and compared with approaches when there is information about a group of students. Formulas illustrate the discussion. (CM)

Adults took the Rod and Frame, Portable Rod and Frame, and Embedded Figures Tests. Absolute and algebraic frame-effect scores were more reliable and valid than rod-effect algebraic scores. Correlations with the Embedded Figures Test were so low that the interchangeability of these field articulation measures is questionable. (Author/RD)

On distractor-identification tests students mark as many distractors as possible on each test item. A grading scale is developed for this type testing. The score is optimal in that it yields an unbiased estimate of the student's score as if no guessing had occurred. (Author/JKS)

The six tables presented in this paper were prepared in the belief that more educators would use the Harris-Jacobson Readability Formulas if the operations employed in those formulas to determine the estimated readability level of materials could be completed more quickly and with fewer calculations. Instructions for using the tables are included.…

The standard error of measurement as a means for estimating the margin of error that should be allowed for in test scores is discussed. The true score measures the performance that is characteristic of the person tested; the variations, plus and minus, around the true score describe a characteristic of the test. When the standard deviation is used…

Procedures for establishing standards and determining the number of items needed in criterion referenced measures were reviewed. Discussion of setting a passing score was organized around: performance of others, item content, educational consequences, psychological and financial costs, and error due to guessing and item sampling. (Author)

Purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the true change-true initial score correlation on one aspect of the true simple change estimate, namely its error variance. (Authors/CB)

Six different approaches to scoring test data, including number right, correction for guessing, and answer-until-correct, were investigated using Monte Carlo techniques. Modes permitting multiple response showed higher internal consistency, but there was little difference among modes for a validity measure. (JKS)

A multiple-answer multiple-choice test is one which offers several alternate choices for each stem and any number of those choices may be considered to be correct. In this article, a class of scoring procedures called the binary class is discussed. (Author/JKS)