In this article, the author describes how she and her eighth-grade class moved away from formalism into a more personal, more connected, more authentic response to literature. She also explains the importance of a transactional approach in teaching literature and creating a democratic classroom. She honors Louise Rosenblatt, who introduced…

This article reviews the empirical literature on 9 topics about the modified Angoff standard-setting method that have been studied repeatedly in the literature, while taking into consideration the methodological warrant for the findings on the topics. It concludes that we can be reasonably confident about selecting the appropriate number of judges…

Winsteps (Rasch Measurement Software and Publications, 2003), as its name implies, is a psychometric program created specifically to compute the step function (Wright & Masters, 1982) for exams carrying partial-credit items. Despite the clarity of the Rasch model (Bond & Fox, 2001) and the availability of rich features in the program, such as the…

One approach to measuring unsigned differential test functioning is to estimate the variance of the differential item functioning (DIF) effect across the items of the test. This article proposes two estimators of the DIF effect variance for tests containing dichotomous and polytomous items. The proposed estimators are direct extensions of the…

The main aim of this article is to explicate why a transition to ideal point methods of scale construction is needed to advance the field of personality assessment. The study empirically demonstrated the substantive benefits of ideal point methodology as compared with the dominance framework underlying traditional methods of scale construction.…

This paper draws on data from the development of annual national mathematics assessment materials for 7-year-old pupils in Wales for use during the period 2000-2002. The materials were developed in both English and Welsh and were designed to be matched. The paper reports on item analyses which sought items that exhibited differential performance…

The recent positions of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the European Foundation for Management Developments (EQUIS) on the value of entrepreneurship suggest a more entrepreneurial perspective in a business school's culture and strategic processes for obtaining and sustaining a business school's reputation. The…

The (univariate) isotonic psychometric (ISOP) model (Scheiblechner, 1995) is a nonparametric IRT model for dichotomous and polytomous (rating scale) psychological test data. A weak subject independence axiom W1 postulates that the subjects are ordered in the same way except for ties (i.e., similarly or isotonically) by all items of a psychological…

Because of the increased popularity of computerized adaptive testing (CAT), many admissions tests, as well as certification and licensure examinations, have been transformed from their paper-and-pencil versions to computerized adaptive versions. A major difference between paper-and-pencil tests and CAT from an examinee's point of view is that in…

Two conditional versions of the exposure-control method with item-ineligibility constraints for adaptive testing in van der Linden and Veldkamp (2004) are presented. The first version is for unconstrained item selection, the second for item selection with content constraints imposed by the shadow-test approach. In both versions, the exposure rates…

This article discusses the assumptions required by the item response theory (IRT) true-score equating method (with Stocking & Lord, 1983; scaling approach), which is commonly used in the nonequivalent groups with an anchor data-collection design. More precisely, this article investigates the assumptions made at each step by the IRT approach to…

This article presents the features, and a brief comparison, of some of the most well-known high-stakes exams. They are classified in the following fashion: tests that only include multiple-choice questions, tests that include writing and multiple-choice questions, and tests that include speaking questions. The tests reviewed are: BULATS, IELTS,…

The validation of cognitive attributes required for correct answers on binary test items or tasks has been addressed in previous research through the integration of cognitive psychology and psychometric models using parametric or nonparametric item response theory, latent class modeling, and Bayesian modeling. All previous models, each with their…

This article highlights issues associated with the use of the differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT) methodology for assessing measurement invariance (or differential functioning) with Likert-type data. Monte Carlo analyses indicate relatively low sensitivity of the DFIT methodology for identifying differential item functioning (DIF)…

This technical report describes the development of progress monitoring measures in the area of Reading Comprehension. Measures were developed for grades 6 through 8. Twenty alternate forms of each measure were created. Passages were written by graduate students and reviewed by the lead author, as well as teachers and panels of graduate students.…