Developmental score scales represent the performance of students along a continuum, where as students learn more they move higher along that continuum. Unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) vertical scaling has become a commonly used method to create developmental score scales. Research has shown that UIRT vertical scaling methods can be…

If a person were to ask an educator to identify the two most important attributes of an education test, the response most certainly would be "validity and reliability." These two tightly wedded concepts have become icons in the field of education assessment. As far as validity is concerned, the term doesn't refer to the accuracy of a test. Rather,…

Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I…

This paper provides a list of 10 salient features of the standard error of measurement, contrasting it to the reliability coefficient. It is concluded that the standard error of measurement should be regarded as a primary characteristic of a mental test. (Author/DWH)

The Feldt-Gilmer congeneric reliability coefficients make it possible to estimate the reliability of a test composed of parts of unequal, unknown length. The approximate standard errors of the Feldt-Gilmer coefficients are derived via a method using the multivariate Taylor's expansion. Monte Carlo simulation is employed to corroborate the…

Even in an educational tests and measurements classroom it is possible to stimulate student creativity and divergent thinking. Examples of projects and test constructions are given to provide food for thought for the creative teacher. (JN)

Simulated tailored tests were used to investigate the relationships between characteristics of the item pool and the computer program, and the reliability and bias of the resulting ability estimates. The computer program was varied to provide for various step sizes (differences in difficulty between successive steps) and different acceptance…