In investigations of unusual testing behavior, a common question is whether a specific pattern of responses occurs unusually often within a group of examinees. In many current tests, modern communication techniques can permit quite large numbers of examinees to share keys, or common response patterns, to the entire test. To address this issue,…

With an increase in the number of online tests, interruptions during testing due to unexpected technical issues seem unavoidable. For example, interruptions occurred during several recent state tests. When interruptions occur, it is important to determine the extent of their impact on the examinees' scores. There is a lack of research on this…

Three separate papers are included in this report. The first describes a two-stage procedure for choosing from among several instructional programs the one which maximizes the probability of passing the test. The second gives the exact sample sizes required to determine whether a squared multiple correlation coefficient is above or below a known…

Two fundamental problems in mental test theory are to estimate true score and to estimate the amount of error when testing an examinee. In this report, three probability models which characterize a single test item in terms of a population of examinees are described. How these models may be modified to characterize a single examinee in terms of an…

A study investigated the effectiveness of the Rasch procedure in measuring response appropriateness, especially for the detection of cheating on multiple-choice language tests. The report gives background information on appropriateness measurement and its potential uses, reviews recent research on cheating and its detection, and describes three…