Technical difficulties and other unforeseen events occasionally lead to incomplete data on educational tests, which necessitates the reporting of imputed scores to some examinees. While there exist several approaches for reporting imputed scores, there is a lack of any guidance on the reporting of the uncertainty of imputed scores. In this paper,…

This research employed a mixed-methods approach to explore the best practices of ordinary national educational testing (O-NET) to improve the quality of basic education. The methodology was divided into four phases, the first of which was a survey and analysis of the current situation at ONET. The sample group was made up of representatives of the…

Recent years have produced a surge in interest in improving state assessment programs. Many states are designing new assessments. Much of this innovation is aimed at addressing longstanding areas of unhappiness with typical domain-sampled, end-of-year state assessments: States want to streamline assessment activities, enhance the instructional…

We draw upon Appadurai's 'scapes' and Latour's Actor Network Theory (ANT) to interrogate historical and spatial flows in relation to specific testing technologies. We reveal how testing systems, conceptualised as actor-networks, rearticulate colonial legacies of inequality which are intensified by new and emerging technologies. ANT helps trace…

Selection decisions have a major impact on our education, occupation, and quality of life, and the role of standardized tests in selection has always been a source of controversy. Here, I consider various definitions of fairness in measurement and selection--those emerging from within educational measurement and statistics, those from philosophy,…

Linking score scales across different tests is considered speculative and fraught, even at the aggregate level. We introduce and illustrate validation methods for aggregate linkages, using the challenge of linking U.S. school district average test scores across states as a motivating example. We show that aggregate linkages can be validated both…

Many standardized tests are now administered via computer rather than paper-and-pencil format. The computer-based delivery mode brings with it certain advantages. One advantage is the ability to adapt the difficulty level of the test to the ability level of the test taker in what has been termed computerized adaptive testing (CAT). A second…

Media reports have recently given significant attention to the opt-out movement, an organized effort to refuse to take standardized tests. Although the narrative often told in early press accounts was of a viral grass-roots effort led by parents who object to state-mandated testing, the reality has turned out to be more complicated. Through a…

Current debates about test-based accountability policies revolve around questions of how to ensure that all students have access to high-quality schools and teachers. Whether and how one can meet this goal depend, in part, on the nature of the arguments that policy proponents and opponents mobilize in these debates. This article examines these…