ACT reporting categories and ACT Readiness Ranges are new features added to the ACT score reports starting in fall 2016. For each reporting category, the number correct score, the maximum points possible, the percent correct, and the ACT Readiness Range, along with an indicator of whether the reporting category score falls within the Readiness…

Much of the argument about comparability of examination standards is at cross-purposes; contradictory positions are in fact often both defensible, but they are using the same words to mean different things. To clarify this, two broad conceptualisations of standards can be identified. One sees the standard in the observed phenomena of performance…

Robert Coe has claimed that three broad conceptions of comparability can be identified from the literature: performance, statistical and conventional. Each of these he rejected, in favour of a single, integrated conception which relies upon the notion of a "linking construct" and which he termed "construct comparability".…

The toal score concept is considered from the test user's point of views. The simples kind of total, obtained by adding raw scores on the tests, automatically assigns weights to the tests which are proportional to their standard deviation. When desired or appropriate, tests can be weighted equally in a total by transforming the raw scores on each…

A correlation coefficient should not be regarded as a judgment; it is only a number summarizing the relationship of two sets of facts to each other. A coefficient's size is important, but the reason for its size is more important. A coefficient should be regarded as a clue to further investigation, which should include the test, the criterion…

Three hypotheses were tested. (1) The test results come from a scalable universe. (2) The data from the two sections come from the same scalable universe. (3) A confirmation of the second hypothesis does not insure that the actual performance levels come from the same universe. (Author)

Selected parameters for a negatively-skewed and a normally distributed normative distribution were estimated in a post-mortem item-examinee sampling investigation. Manipulated systematically were number of subtests, number of items per subtest, and number of examinees responding to each subtest. Each item-examinee sampling procedure was replicated…

It is shown that all obtained scores must meet the requirements for classical test-score theory with respect to definitions of true scores and errors of measurement if that frame of reference is to yield valid variance errors of measurement. (DG)

The contention that interpretation of a student's performance on a criterion referenced test should be independent of the performance of his classmates is challenged. The Mastery Learning Test Model, which was developed for analyzing criterion referenced test data, is described. An estimate of the proportion of students in an instructional group…

The MERMAC computer program is offered to the University of Wisconsin faculty for use in scoring and analyzing classroom tests. The characteristics of a good test are discussed; examples are given of the output of the MERMAC program; and the results are used to show how the quality of a test may be improved. Although the MERMAC Program is for…

The path from a collection of observations and measurements to a set of warranted conclusions is fraught with hazards. This chapter describes the path and offers some guidance on how to negotiate it. It also discusses presenting results in a way that can be understood by nontechnically trained persons. It should enable the reader to better…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible effect of students having an immediate awareness of the results of tests they have taken and how that knowledge influences further test performance. (Author/RK)

This is one of three volumes presenting the procedures and results of a research effort investigating the effects upon student outcomes of training teachers to implement individual study and self-directed study in their classrooms. In this volume correlation matrices drawn from tests of student variables and achievement are presented. Item…

Four points are made and discussed concerning the correction for guessing on tests: (1) the correction could more properly be called a penalty for answering wrong; (2) the basic assumption underlying the correction is the concept of the "chance score"--one expects a proportion of the number of items to be answered correctly on the basis of chance;…

Prior use of the equipercentile method of test equating was based on a graphic procedure which is tedious, subject to smoothing errors, and non-analytical. Recognition of the equipercentile method as a curve-fitting procedure for two cumulative percentage distributions leads to a proposed analytical solution to the problem through use of linear…