This paper follows a line of logical argumentation to claim that what Samuel Messick conceptualized about construct validation has probably been misunderstood by some educational policy makers, practicing educators, and classroom teachers. It argues that, while Messick's unified theory of test validation aimed at (a) warning educational…

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…

Most implementations of the Mantel-Haenszel differential item functioning procedure delete records with missing responses or replace missing responses with scores of 0. These treatments of missing data make strong assumptions about the causes of the missing data. Such assumptions may be particularly problematic when groups differ in their patterns…

Court cases are presented that illustrate some of the issues that courts have dealt with in the area of educational testing. While this study was developed primarily for parents, the booklet should also help school administrators and testing professionals learn about court cases and precedents relevant to some major issues in educational testing.…

This review considers the treatment given by four recent educational measurement texts to these six current issues in testing: criterion v norm-referenced tests; accountability; test bias and cultural fairness; the impact of testing on student self-esteem and motivation; privacy; and errors in measurement. (SJL)

Presents documentation suggesting sex bias can be found in educational testing and suggests that a more objective treatment of women in educational tests can be made by showing women in a wider variety of occupations and activities and by more equal representation of women in test content. (Author/DN)

Computer-based assessments are becoming more commonplace, perhaps as a necessity for faculty to cope with large class sizes. These tests often occur in large computer testing venues in which test security may be compromised. In an attempt to limit the likelihood of cheating in such venues, randomised presentation of items is automatically…

The present social and political climate is marked by an increasing appreciation of human diversity and of society's need to accommodate such diversity. The social context for testing is thus fundamentally different from that in which standardized testing developed. Testing should now be more concerned with facilitating equal opportunity.…

Arguing that most standardized tests are biased against minorities, especially black Americans, several alternatives and guidelines are suggested to alter the present unfair administration, interpretation, and testing process. (EH)

This paper presents the purpose, format, topics of seminar sessions, and participant recommendations of a conference on educational testing processes and their relation to blacks. The conference was held to familiarize participants with research data demonstrating the fallacies and inconsistencies inherent in the testing process as it relates to…

An indictment of the ways in which reading and mathematics standardized tests affect classroom curricula. (Author)

Norm-referenced testing is not appropriate for use in teacher evaluation. A truly equitable method of teacher evaluation is based on a clear set of instructional targets and on the teacher's effectiveness in helping students master the specific skills and knowledge targeted. (Author/MLF)

The author of "The Tyranny of Testing" discusses his objections to standardized testing. (IRT)

This chapter briefly describes some of the methods that test developers and psychometricians have devised to identify item and test bias and some of the challenges they still face. Although it may not be reasonable for classroom teachers to use these methods on a day-to-day basis in constructing tests, the authors argue that it is important for…