This paper describes the development of the Basic Educational Skills Test (BEST) in the Austin Independent School District. In 1982 future options for the AISD minimum competency program, which requires all students to meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics before graduation, were evaluated against legal and local criteria. It…

Studies carried out over a 12-year period addressed fundamental questions on the use of Rasch-based item banks. Large field tests administered in grades 3-8 of reading, mathematics, and science items, as well as standardized test results were used to explore the possible effects of many factors on item calibrations. In general, the results…

The "Test Development Notebook" is a resource designed for the preparation of tests of literal comprehension for students in grades 1 through 12. This volume contains 425 multiple-choice cloze exercises taken from textbooks in reading and literature, and the accompanying answer key. Each exercise carries the code letter of the section to which it…

The Broad-Range Tailored Test (BRTT) is a computerized adaptive test. Each testee responds to 25 items; at the conclusion of the test the computer calculates a verbal ability score for the individual. The test was designed to yield a verbal ability score from the fifth grade level to the graduate school level. Two forms of the BRTT were…

The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) critical data base contains 151 items (plus background information) from the base year and followup questionnaires; about thirty-seven percent of all items. This set of critical items consists of: (1) basic demographic variables; (2) items necessary for defining activity states…

A study involving four sections of a general psychology course at Delta College (Michigan) was conducted to determine: (1) the effectiveness of repeated, cumulative testing on long-term retention of information; (2) its effect on students' ability to generalize information learned as measured by the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) general…

A "teacher referenced" test system is discussed in terms of its development, evaluation of implementation, and final validation. This diagnostic test system for problems in primary mathematics in Holland provides reliable, applicable information about both the learning process for the classroom teacher, and diagnostic instruments and…

This collection contains fifty physical education objectives, related sample items, and directions for administering and scoring, and is divided into four categories. The first measures movement skills: body awareness, perception, locomotion, axial skills, balance, and gross motor coordination in games and sports. The second category measures…

The primary purpose of this project was to develop model evaluation procedures that could be applied to large educational undertakings in Indonesia. Three programs underway in Indonesia were selected for the development of evaluation models: the Textbook-Teacher Upgrading Project, the Development School Project, and the Examinations (Item Bank)…

CAFETERIA-type rating systems, modeled after the one developed at Purdue University, allow the instructors being evaluated to select those items which their students will use in evaluating the instructors. Such computer-assisted systems allow the instructor to tailor the evaluation to the particular instructional strategies used. This study…

Over 100 objectives, each accompanied by a related evaluation item, dealing with elementary school life sciences, are presented. The objectives are organized into the following categories: individual organism; population; environment; community; and ecosystem. Objectives are based on an examination of leading curriculum materials in the life…

This is one of the outcomes of the work of the Massachusetts Evaluation Service Center for Occupational Education (ESCOE). The first part of this document is an overview of the Performance Test Development Project. The remainder of the document explores machine shop curriculum in terms of terminal behavioral objectives which were grouped by…

The assessment framework underlying a science performance monitoring program is process-oriented and intended to appeal to generalizability theory for a suitable estimation paradigm. Preliminary applications are described. Results suggest that computerized question-banking, domain-sampling of questions, and generalizablity theory together provide…

Item parameter estimates vary for a variety of reasons, including estimation error, characteristics of the examinee samples, and context effects (e.g., item location effects, section location effects, etc.). Although we expect variation based on theory, there is reason to believe that observed variation in item parameter estimates exceeds what…

The availability of item response times made possible by computerized testing represents an entirely new type of information about test items. This study explores the issue of how to represent response-time information in item banks. Empirical response-time distribution functions can be fit with statistical distribution functions with known…