Automatic item generation (AIG)--a means of leveraging technology to create large quantities of items--requires a minimum number of items to offset the sizable upfront investment (i.e., model development and technology deployment) in order to achieve cost savings. In this cost-benefit analysis, we estimated the cost of each step of AIG and manual…

Computer-based educational assessments often include items that involve drag-and-drop responses. There are different ways that drag-and-drop items can be laid out and different choices that test developers can make when designing these items. Currently, these decisions are based on experts' professional judgments and design constraints, rather…

The current study investigated how item formats and their inherent affordances influence test-takers' cognition under uncertainty. Adult participants solved content-equivalent math items in multiple-selection multiple-choice and four alternative grid formats. The results indicated that participants' affirmative response tendency (i.e., judge the…

Participation in international large-scale assessments has grown over time with the largest, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), including more than 70 education systems that are economically and educationally diverse. To help accommodate for large achievement differences among participants, in 2009 PISA offered…

As computer-based tests become more common, there is a growing wealth of metadata related to examinees' response processes, which include solution strategies, concentration, and operating speed. One common type of metadata is item response time. While response times have been used extensively to improve estimates of achievement, little work…

The alignment of test items to content standards is critical to the validity of decisions made from standards-based tests. Generally, alignment is determined based on judgments made by a panel of content experts with either ratings averaged or via a consensus reached through discussion. When the pool of items to be reviewed is large, or the…

Items on test score scales located at and below the Proficient cut score define the content area knowledge and skills required to achieve proficiency. Alternately, examinees who perform at the Proficient level on a test can be expected to be able to demonstrate that they have mastered most of the knowledge and skills represented by the items at…

This article examines the role of reviewer agreement in judgments about alignment between tests and standards. We used case data from three state alignment studies to explore how different approaches to incorporating reviewer agreement changes alignment conclusions. The three case studies showed varying degrees of reviewer agreement about…

Student responses to a large number of constructed response items in three Math and three Reading tests were scored on two occasions using three ways of assigning raters: single reader scoring, a different reader for each response (item-specific), and three readers each scoring a rater item block (RIB) containing approximately one-third of a…

Gender-related differential item functioning (DIF) was examined in a context in which 3,946 middle school students received mathematics instruction focusing on problem solving. Reasons why four tasks on the performance assessment favored female students and two favored male students are discussed. (SLD)

The contributions of open-ended tasks in examining students' mathematical performance were studied with 250 U.S. and 425 Chinese sixth graders. Open-ended tasks allow for analysis of student performance that cannot be assessed solely by percent correct or incorrect, but they pose many problems, such as those of translation. (SLD)