Assessment and evaluation at all levels of educational systems have become policy priorities for many countries. Two common reasons for this are student learning expectations and accountability. Although much effort has been put into the creation and refinement of content standards, standardized tests, and methods for using testing results, there…

In this essay, we describe the construction and use of the Cut-Score Operating Function in aiding standard setting decisions. The Cut-Score Operating Function shows the relation between the cut-score chosen and the consequent error rate. It allows error rates to be defined by multiple loss functions and will show the behavior of each loss…

Standard setting is a systematic process that uses a combination of judgmental and empirical procedures to make recommendations about where on the score continuum "cut scores" should be placed. Cut scores divide the score scale into categories consistent with the descriptions of student performance associated with multiple levels of achievement.…

The Arizona English Language Learners Assessment (AZELLA) is used by the Arizona Department of Education to determine which children should receive English support services. AZELLA results are used to determine if children are either proficient in English or have English language skills in one of four pre-proficient categories (pre-emergent,…

While externally moderated standards-based assessment has been practised in Queensland senior schooling for more than three decades, there has been no such practice in the middle years. With the introduction of standards at state and national levels in these years, teacher judgement as developed in moderation practices is now vital. This paper…

Alternate assessments of modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) must be designed, developed, implemented, and validated following the same rigorous principles and procedures used for other assessments. However, the uniqueness and unfamiliarity of the target population for these assessments requires innovative thinking, especially in…

It is shown that the Angoff and bookmarking cut scores are examples of true score equating that in the real world must be applied to observed scores. In the context of defining minimal competency, the percentage "failed" by such methods is a function of the length of the measuring instrument. It is argued that this length is largely…

Throughout classrooms in the United States there appears to have been a general watering down of academic standards. The percentages of "A" and "B" grades have risen, and at some schools, the percentage of grades of "C" or lower has plummeted. Numerous scholarly articles about grade inflation discuss the extent,…

Considers how educators can best prepare their students to meet the demands of test standards without sacrificing what they know to be effective teaching. Provides examples of how addressing the standards improved both the author's teaching and student learning by providing a focus and a challenge that moved her out of her comfort zone. (SG)

Responds to a negative evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and asserts that a review of the evidence for the NAEP performance standards indicates that there is support for the current approach to NAEP standard setting. Considers the scholarship of the NAS evaluation…

Takes issue with support of the standard setting process of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) advanced by critics of the evaluation of the standard setting process by the National Academy of Sciences and asserts that the achievement level descriptions developed for the NAEP no longer adhere to policy statements defining the…

Examines criteria for choosing between test-centered and examinee-centered methods of standard setting in empirical terms and in terms of whether the method is consistent with the model of achievement underlying test design and interpretation and the assessment methods being used. Contains 35 references. (Author/SLD)

The process used to identify the provisional locations of points that would inform the National Assessment Governing Board in setting achievement levels for the science National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is described. This process includes identification of panelists for achievement-level setting and the method for converting…

The Achievement-Levels Setting (ALS) process for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) resulted in numerical cutscores on the NAEP score scale representing the performance standards for three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. This paper focuses on an important, but less researched, aspect of the standard setting…

In 1999 a validation study of the 1998 Civics Assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was conducted, combining a similarity classification study and a booklet classification study. The rationale was that if the teachers who had participated in the 5-day achievement levels-setting process could not use the descriptions…