In the attempt to identify or prevent unfair tests, both quantitative analyses and logical evaluation are often used. For the most part, fairness evaluation is a pragmatic attempt at determining whether procedural or substantive due process has been accorded to either a group of test takers or an individual. In both the individual and comparative…

"Naturalization Test Redesign Project: Civics Item Selection Analysis" provides an overview of the development of content items for the U.S. history and government (civics) portion of the redesigned naturalization test. This document also reviews the process used to gather and analyze data from multiple studies to determine which civics…

Effects that item order and basal and ceiling rules have on test means, variances, and internal consistency estimates for the Peabody Individual Achievement Test mathematics and reading recognition subtests were examined. Items on the math and reading recognition subtests were significantly easier or harder than test placements indicated. (Author)

Researchers sometimes need a statistical test of the hypothesis that two values of Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient are equal. The situation may involve scores from two different measures administered to independent random samples or from the same measure administered to random samples from two different populations. Feldt derived a test…

Tailored testing provides the same information as group-administered standardized tests, but can do so using fewer items because the items administered are selected for the ability of the individual student. Thus, tailored testing offers several advantages over traditional methods. Because individual tailored tests are not timed, anxiety is…

This paper describes a computer program in Microsoft BASIC which selects and administers test items from a small item bank. The level of the difficulty of the item selected depends on the test taker's previous response. This adaptive system is based on the Rasch model. The Rasch model uses a unit of measurement based on the logarithm of the…

Twenty multiple-choice vocabulary items and 20 free-response vocabulary items were administered to 660 college students. The free-response items consisted of the stem words of the multiple-choice items. Testees were asked to respond to the free-response items with synonyms. A computer algorithm was developed to transform the numerous…

This report contains the Proceedings of the 1982 Item Response Theory and Computerized Adaptive Testing Conference. The papers and their discussions are organized into eight sessions: (1) "Developments in Latent Trait Theory," with papers by Fumiko Samejima and Michael V. Levine; (2) "Parameter Estimation," with papers by…

Computer adaptive testing systems are feasible for certification and licensure testing. This is in part due to the availability of extensive yet inexpensive computers. Modern item response theory, combined with computerized adaptive testing, yields a powerful new method of testing which provides greater accuracy and efficiency and less boredom for…