This article considers how a handicapping system should be devised for squash. It looks at the American scoring system, and whether it is possible to have a fair system of handicapping. We consider "fair" from a perspective of expected number of rallies won and probability of winning.

Fully updated to reflect the most recent changes in the field, the Second Edition of "Propensity Score Analysis" provides an accessible, systematic review of the origins, history, and statistical foundations of propensity score analysis, illustrating how it can be used for solving evaluation and causal-inference problems. With a strong…

Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) is committed to providing partners with useful tools to help make inferences from Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) interim assessment scores. One important tool is the concordance table between MAP and state summative assessments. Concordance tables have been used for decades to relate scores on…

Optimal assessment tools should measure in a limited time the knowledge of students in a correct and unbiased way. A method for automating the scoring is multiple choice scoring. This article compares scoring methods from a probabilistic point of view by modelling the probability to pass: the number right scoring, the initial correction (IC) and…

Concordance tables have been used for decades to relate scores on different tests measuring similar but distinct constructs. These tables, typically derived from statistical linking procedures, provide a direct link between scores on different tests and serve various purposes. Aside from describing how a score on one test relates to performance on…

Recently, Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a study to connect the scale of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) Testing Program used for Minnesota's mathematics and reading assessments with NWEA's RIT (Rasch Unit) scale. Information from the state assessments was used in a study to establish performance-level scores on…

To rule out the need for a two-parameter item response theory (IRT) model during item analysis by Rasch models, it is important to check the Rasch model's assumption that all items have the same item discrimination. Biserial and polyserial correlation coefficients measuring the association between items and restscores are often used in an informal…

Multiple-choice tests such as the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) are often viewed as a preferable estimator of vocabulary knowledge when compared to yes/no checklists, because self-reporting tests introduce the possibility of students overreporting or underreporting scores. However, multiple-choice tests have their own unique disadvantages. It has…

Omitted items cannot properly be treated as wrong when estimating ability and item parameters. A convenient method for utilizing the information provided by omissions is presented. Some theoretical and considerable empirical justification is adduced for the estimates obtained by both old and new methods. (Author)

Though the Paired-Item-Score (Eakin and Long) (EJ 174 780) method of scoring true-false tests has certain advantages over the traditional scoring methods (percentage right and right minus wrong), these advantages are attained at the cost of a larger risk of misranking the examinees. (Author/BW)

Although a great deal of attention has been devoted over a period of years to the estimation of reliability from item statistics, there are still gaps in the mathematical derivation of the Kuder-Richardson results. The main purpose of this paper is to fill some of these gaps, using language consistent with modern probability theory. (Author)

The distribution theory underlying corrections for guessing is analyzed, and the probability distributions of the random variables are derived. The correction in grade, based on random guessing of unknown answers, is compared with corrections based on educated guessing. (Author/MH)

The relationship between true ability (operationally defined as the number of items for which the examinee actually knew the correct answer) and the effects of guessing upon observed test variance was investigated. Three basic hypotheses were treated mathematically: there is no functional relationship between true ability and guessing success;…

Features of a probabilistic testing system that has been implemented on the "cerl" PLATO computer system are described. The key feature of the system is the manner in which an examinee responds to each test item; the examinee distributes probabilities among the alternatives of each item by positioning a small square on or within an…

The relationship between certain personality variables and the degree to which examines display certainty in their responses was investigated. (Author)