This study describes the characteristics of the test and its items used in the national-standardized school examination by applying classical test theory and focusing on the item difficulty, item discrimination, test reliability, and distractor analysis. We analyzed response data of 191 12th graders from one of public senior high schools in…

We investigated the use and validity of standardized achievement tests for summative evaluation of 78 educational intervention projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) math and science education program. Investigators from 46 projects evaluated curricular interventions with standardized achievement tests as outcome measures.…

Increasing linguistic diversity in classrooms has led researchers to examine the validity and fairness of standardized achievement tests, specifically concerning whether test score interpretations are free of bias and score use is fair for all students. This study examined whether mathematics achievement test items that contain complex language…

In response to concerns about using only standardized multiple-choice assessments, some school districts have moved to using alternative ratings of student achievement with authentic assessments. However, such assessments are often limited in terms of the psychometric validity data supporting their use. The present study mixed quantitative and…

States are establishing high stakes assessments to serve as measurement tools of students' academic abilities. This study essentially compares Maryland's and Florida's mathematics and science assessments for similarities and differences. Building from 5-10 years of student level quantitative data (secondary data) and critical analyses of the…

This report provides a description of the development process, field testing, and psychometric properties of a student mathematics test designed to assess grades 1 and 2 student abilities. The test was administered to 2,373 participating grade 1 and 2 students in 22 schools located in 2 public school districts in Florida during fall 2013. Focused…

As state tests of student achievement are used for an increasingly wide array of high- and low-stakes purposes, evaluating their instructional sensitivity is essential. This article uses data from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Project to examine the instructional sensitivity of 4 states' mathematics and English…

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] is a global policy organization that includes the United States and about half of the Western Europe countries. It administers international comparison tests, called Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), for 15 year-old students in Mathematics and other subjects. I…

Approximately one-third of American freshmen at two-year and four-year colleges require remedial coursework and over 40 percent of employers rate new hires with a high school diploma as "deficient" in their overall preparation for entry-level jobs. Yet, over the past decade, as these students marched through America's public education…

The current dissertation gathered empirical evidence of convergent and predictive validity for the Self-Regulation Strategies Inventory-Parent Rating Scale (SRSI-PRS), which measures parents' perception of their child's use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies during mathematics activities. The SRSI-PRS, which is part of the larger SRSI…

In support of the national movement to improve mathematics instruction and assessment, states and districts are looking for the best tools to measure student progress toward proficiency. There is a national dialogue about how to use 8th-grade measurements like ACT EXPLORE and NAEP as predictors of student success and school accountability. This…

The present study examined the technical adequacy of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) of early numeracy. Six 1-min early mathematics tasks were administered to 137 kindergarten and first-grade students, along with an omnibus test of early mathematics. The CBM measures included Count Out Loud, Quantity Discrimination, Number Identification, Missing…

Researchers have developed indices to identify persons whose test results "misfit" and are considered statistically "aberrant" or "unexpected" and whose measures are consequently potentially invalid, drawing the test's validity into question. This study draws on interviews of pupils and their teachers, using a sample…

Item response theory (IRT) methods are generally used to create score scales for large-scale tests. Research has shown that IRT scales are stable across groups and over time. Most studies have focused on items that are dichotomously scored. Now Rasch and other IRT models are used to create scales for tests that include polytomously scored items.…

In this research investigation of score comparability for language minority students (English language learners [ELLs] and former English language learners), we examined 3 indicators of score comparability (reliability, internal test structure, and differential item functioning) for 4th and 8th grade students who took the NCLB-mandated content…