Many textbooks in educational measurement and classroom assessment have chapters devoted to specific item formats. There may be attempts to relate one item format to another, but the chapters and item formats are largely seem as distinct entities with only loose and uncertain connections. This paper synthesizes these discussions. An item format…

Many local and state education agencies in the United States now mandate annual assessments of student writing ability. To comply with these mandates, schools across the country have developed a variety of assessment procedures. To determine the "state of the art" of large-scale writing assessment in the country, a questionnaire was sent…

The validity and reliability of two techniques of assessing writing proficiency were compared in a sample of 300 South African students (in Standard 8) for whom English was a second language. The objective, multiple choice method was compared with a subjective, essay method. Students completed a Standard English Second Language Item Bank Test and…