What is assessment literacy? It is a handful of fundamental understandings about the testing concepts and procedures that influence educational decisions. And it just might be the most cost-effective means of real school improvement. With characteristic humor and aplomb, assessment expert W. James Popham strips away the psychometrician-speak and…

The tests we use to evaluate student achievement may well be sound measures of what students know, but they are faulty indicators at best of how well they have been taught. A remedy to this this situation of judging teachers by the performance of their students on high-stakes tests may be in hand already. We should look to the methods successfully…

In this article, the author explains the key differences among three kinds of instructionally relevant tests that can have a huge impact on what goes on in classrooms: "instructionally insensitive tests," "instructionally sensitive tests," and "instructionally informative tests." If educators understand the advantages and limitations of these…

Carefully collected, quantifiable evidence must be assembled regarding not only the content representativeness of a test but also the significance of that content. In addition, the concept of "adequacy of preparation" should be seen as separate from the issue of content validity. (Author/GC)

Teachers should be evaluated chiefly by the results they produce. Those results will not be properly detected through the use of norm-referenced achievement tests (NRT) due to the following major deficits of NRT: (1) the descriptions of what is measured by NRT are far too loose; (2) evaluative expectations are unclear; (3) the necessity for NRT to…

Attention is drawn to the dynamics of criterion-referenced test (CRT) construction in this report. How CRT's are developed at the Instructional Objectives Exchange is described through a series of three steps. The procedures pertain to the construction of "off the shelf" as well as "customized" tests. Step one, isolating the…

Assessment for learning involves the frequent, continual use of both formal and informal classroom assessments. It can be as simple as requiring students to respond to a lesson-embedded, one-item quiz as a way of gauging student understanding of what is being taught. Ideally, this innovative approach to classroom assessment is based on a careful…

Health education researchers have occasionally used measuring tools inappropriately. Test validity and the use of criterion-referenced tests are discussed in view of this need to improve health education research. Also described are handbooks containing measuring devices for the use of health education researchers. (CJ)

The concept of consequential validity wrongly links the idea of the consequences of test use with the idea of validity, widely held to be rooted in the accuracy of inferences drawn from examinees' test performances. The reification of consequential validity can distract from a needed clarity about test use consequences. (SLD)

The use of the regression equation derived from the Anglo-American sample to predict grades of Mexican-American students resulted in overprediction. An examination of the standardized regression weights revealed a significant difference in the weight given to the Scholastic Aptitude Test Mathematics Score. (Author/BB)

Techniques for increasing honesty of student self-report measures, the inaccessible coding system and the alphabet-soup response form, were investigated in a study involving over 1,200 high school students. Both techniques were regarded favorably by students. Because both enhance anonymity, it appears that they could be used jointly. (SLD)

A well-constructed criterion-referenced test has an unambiguous descriptive scheme, an adequate number of items, a sufficiently limited focus, reliability, validity, and comparative data. (Author/MLF)

Tests producing results that are used to make important decisions about students, schools, and curricula should not be developed locally by teachers. Although district educators at all levels need to become familiar with measurement nuances, the development of high stakes tests is best left to measurement professionals. Includes four references.…

Details the steps followed in the development of the Basic Skills Word List. (FL)