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…

In keeping with the theme of the International Language Testing Association/Language Testing Research Colloquium Conference in 2008, "Focusing on the Core: Justifying the Use of Language Assessments to Stakeholders," I define "stakeholder-friendly tests," "defensible testing," and "testing-context analysis."…

A new formula is developed for the relative efficiency of two tests measuring the same trait. The formula expresses relative efficiency solely in terms of the standard errors of measurement and, surprisingly, the frequency distributions of true scores. Approximate methods for estimating relative efficiency may make this function routinely…

A simple, usefully accurate approximation of the standard error of measurement is proposed for use by classroom teachers. An empirical comparison with Lord's approximation indicated that, though not as easy to calculate as Lord's, this approximation is more practical because it is useful at any point in the score distribution. (BW)

Current usage and theory of standard error of measurement calls for one standard error of measurement figure to be used across all levels of scoring. The study revealed that scoring variance across scoring levels is not constant. As scoring ability increases scoring variance decreases. The assertion that low and high scoring subjects will…

Because test scores are ordinal not cordinal attributes, the average test score often is a misleading way to summarize the scores of a group of individuals. Similarly, correlation coefficients may be misleading summary measures of association between test scores. Proper, readily interpretable, summary statistics are developed from a theory of…

Considered is the improvement of criterion-referenced measurement as applied to individual and group assessment of handicapped and normal children. (DB)

The literature on a priori and empirical weighting of test items and test-item options is reviewed. While multiple regression is the best known technique for deriving fixed empirical weights for component variables (such as tests and test items), other methods allow one to derive weights which equalize the effective weights of the component…

Some basic statistical concepts relevant to the teacher--mean scores, standard deviation, normal and skewed distributions, z scores, item analysis, standard error of measurement, reliability--and their use by the teacher are explained. (RM)

It has been argued that item variance and test variance are not necessary characteristics for criterion-referenced tests, although they are necessary for norm-referenced tests. This position is in error because it considers sample statistics as the criteria for evaluating items and tests. Within a particular sample, an item or test may have no…

The objective of the study is to convince educational researchers of the necessity for "standard mastery curves" for the graphical representation of scores on summative tests for a group of students. Attention is drawn to the study of theoretical and empirical skew curves in education and biology. Use of standard mastery curves and study…

This study tests the appropriateness of Torrance's assumptions of trait independence and the combinability of measures (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) with respect to the scoring of the tests for a younger population and estimates the homogeneity of the scores. The sample consisted of 128 elementary school children. Results indicate that…

This study examines a common set of equating items for their appropriateness to both American and Canadian populations and, to determine the equations for converting scores from the verbal and mathematical scales of the 1971 form of the Canadian Scholastic Aptitude Test (the future standard continuing scales of the CSAT) to the corresponding…

Investigates the general factor and uniqueness characteristics of the individual tests of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Ability-Revised (WJTCA-R). Only 2 of the 19 WJTCA-R tests examined had low general factor loadings, while 2 had low uniqueness. All other tests had medium or high uniqueness. Discusses implications for clinical…