Summative evaluation for large classes of first- and second-year undergraduate courses often involves the use of multiple choice question (MCQ) exams in order to provide timely feedback. Several versions of those exams are often prepared via computer-based question scrambling in an effort to deter cheating. An important parameter to consider when…

The New Mexico Public Education Department developed the Kindergarten Observation Tool (KOT) as a multidimensional observational measure of students' knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry. The primary purpose of the KOT is to inform instruction, so that kindergarten teachers can use the information about their students' knowledge and skills…

The Early Fractions Test v2.2 is a paper-pencil test designed to measure mathematics achievement of third- and fourth-grade students in the domain of fractions. The purpose, or intended use, of the Early Fractions Test v2.2 is to serve as a measure of student outcomes in a randomized trial designed to estimate the effect of an educational…

Understanding the reason(s) for Differential Item Functioning (DIF) in the context of measurement is difficult. Although identifying potential DIF items is typically a statistical endeavor, understanding the reasons for DIF (and item repair or replacement) might require investigations that can be informed by qualitative work. Such work is…

Researchers are frequently confronted with unanswered questions or items on their questionnaires and tests, due to factors such as item difficulty, lack of testing time, or participant distraction. This paper first presents results from a poll confirming previous claims (Rietveld & van Hout, 2006; Schafer & Graham, 2002) that data…

Three profoundly deaf individuals undertook a low-frequency backward lexical translation task (French/English), where morphological structure was manipulated and orthographic distance between test items was measured. Conditions included monomorphemic items (simplex), polymorphemic items (complex), items whose French morphological structure…

Raju, van der Linden, and Fleer (1995) introduced a framework for differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT) for unidimensional dichotomous models. Since then, DFIT has been shown to be a quite versatile framework as it can handle polytomous as well as multidimensional models both at the item and test levels. However, DFIT is still limited…

Establishing cut scores using the Angoff method requires panelists to evaluate every item on a test and make a probability judgment. This can be time-consuming when there are large numbers of items on the test. Previous research using resampling studies suggest that it is possible to recommend stable Angoff-based cut score estimates using a…

This manuscript chronicles the process and products of a redesign for evaluation of the graduate college experience (GCE) which was initiated by a university graduate college, based on its observed need to reconsider and update its measures and methods for assessing graduate students' experiences. We examined the existing instrumentation and…

Koretz, in his article published in this issue, provides compelling arguments that the high stakes currently associated with accountability testing lead to behavioral changes in students, teachers, and other stakeholders that often have negative consequences, such as inflated scores. Koretz goes on to argue that these negative consequences require…

Previous investigations of the ability of content experts and test developers to estimate item difficulty have, for themost part, produced disappointing results. These investigations were based on a noncomparative method of independently rating the difficulty of items. In this article, we argue that, by eliciting comparative judgments of…

We investigated the social validity of the NECC Core Skills Assessment (NECC-CSA) with parents and professionals as participants. The NECC-CSA is a measurement tool consisting of direct and indirect measures of skills important to all individuals with autism, across the lifespan. Participants (N = 245) were provided with a list of 66 skills, 47 of…

Geography textbooks contain chapter or review questions that may engage students in spatial thinking. This research used Jo and Bednarz's (2009) "Taxonomy of Spatial Thinking" to evaluate the percentage of spatial thinking questions in four university-level world geography course textbooks. The results from this study were then…

Research on secular trends in mean intelligence test scores shows smaller gains in vocabulary skills than in nonverbal reasoning. One possible explanation is that vocabulary test items become outdated faster compared to nonverbal tasks. The history of the usage frequency of the words on five popular vocabulary tests, the GSS Wordsum, Wechsler…

In common-item equating the anchor block is generally built to represent a miniature form of the total test in terms of content and statistical specifications. The statistical properties frequently reflect equal mean and spread of item difficulty. Sinharay and Holland (2007) suggested that the requirement for equal spread of difficulty may be too…