Elicited Imitation Tests (EITs) are commonly used in second language acquisition (SLA)/bilingualism research contexts to assess the general oral proficiency of study participants. While previous studies have provided valuable EIT construct-related validity evidence, some key gaps remain. This study uses an integrative data analysis to further…

Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect…

This demonstration introduces and presents an innovative online cognitive diagnostic assessment, developed to identify the types of cognitive processes that readers use during comprehension; specifically, processes that distinguish between subtypes of struggling comprehenders. Cognitive diagnostic assessments are designed to provide valuable…

As the most prestigious and popular standardized achievement test to certify examinees' proficiency of the English language at the national level, Foreign Language Examination (YDS) has been mostly taken by academic staff, undergraduate and graduate students, state employees, and military personnel for years in Turkey. The current study set out to…

Just like all the high-stakes tests that determine students' futures nowadays, The Chorizo Test is a standardized test rooted in the culture of the test makers. It was originally created to be used with students in teacher training programs to sensitize them to the pitfalls inherent in standardized pencil-and-paper tests, such as linguistic bias…

This article summarizes results from tests that have allowed examinee choice of test items. It paints a bleak psychometric picture for the use of examinee choice within fair tests. Choice is anathema to standardized testing unless the aspects that characterize the test are irrelevant to what is being tested. (SLD)

This paper presents six steps in test construction generally recommended by measurement textbook authors. The focus is primarily on paper-and-pencil achievement tests as used by class instructions, although the discussion touches on the construction of other types of assessment. The six steps are: (1) determine the test purpose; (2) determine the…

A model for summarizing test scores and using them to modify instructional programs is presented. The proposed model consists of two types of summaries of the data gathered through standardized tests. The first summary contains individual and single class results. Information in a "Class Item Response Record" chart provides individual student…

Four considerations that enhance the instructional importance of tests are content match, use of feedback, a flagging function, and the increasing tendency to attach sanctions and rewards to standardized test results. These sanctions are apt to force greater attention to the other three characteristics, strengthening the links between instruction…

A new assessment conception is described that integrates constructed-response testing, artificial intelligence, and model-based measurement. The conception incorporates complex constructed-response items for their potential to increase the validity, instructional utility, and credibility of standardized tests. Artificial intelligence methods are…

This article presents a model that can be used by local school districts for reanalyzing standardized test results to obtain a more valid assessment of local learning objectives can be used to identify strengths/weaknesses of existing programs as well as individual students. (EGS)

The accuracy and fairness of standardized testing is taken very seriously in the education world. These issues are a major focus of both the testing experts who develop standardized tests and the researchers who endeavor to ensure a test's fairness, reliability, validity, and accuracy. But many issues remain both controversial and complex. The…

Studied whether student scores on standardized tests represent reasonable measures of instructional quality using ratings by 10 parents and 11 educators (school principals) of the degree to which test items from a nationally marketed standardized achievement test represent the content actually taught. On average, raters felt that test items…

The use of item banks and item response theory has resulted in new ways to misinterpret and misuse tests through customized, yet standardized, achievement test batteries. The new test batteries create the possibility of serious misunderstandings based on the idea that any subset of items from the pool with a proper range of difficulties will…

A decade ago intelligence testing was in its beginnings in the United States. There were no standardized tests available except those of the Binet-Simon scale. These tests had been used but little, and chiefly for the detection and classification of the backward and the feeble-minded. Goddard had just begun pioneer work in this field, while…