Research support for providing a read-aloud accommodation (i.e., having an individual read test items and directions aloud) to students with disabilities has been somewhat limited, particularly when merely examining effects of the accommodation on overall test scores for general groups of students with disabilities. We examined data on…

This article explores the effect on assessment of "translating" paper and pencil test items into their computer equivalents. Computer versions of a set of mathematics questions derived from the paper-based end of key stage 2 and 3 assessments in England were administered to age appropriate pupil samples, and the outcomes compared.…

Although the belief has been expressed that performance assessments are intrinsically more fair than multiple-choice measures, some forms of performance assessment may in fact be more likely than conventional tests to tap construct-irrelevant factors. As performance assessment grows in popularity, it will be increasingly important to monitor the…

When examinees are allowed to review responses on an adaptive test, can they "cheat" the adaptive algorithm in order to take an easier test and improve their performance? Theoretically, deliberately answering items incorrectly will lower the examinee ability estimate and easy test items will be administered. If review is then allowed,…

When test-takers are offered a choice of essay questions, some questions may be harder than others. If the test includes a common portion taken by all test-takers, an adjustment to the scores is possible. Previously proposed adjustment procedures disregard the test-makers' efforts to create questions of equal difficulty; these procedures tend to…

This report provides a description of the design for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1994 Trial State Assessment in Reading and gives an overview of the steps involved in the implementation of the program from the planning stages through to the analysis and reporting of data. The report does not provide the results of the…

This study reports the results of an investigation into the accuracy and efficacy of item calibration schemes used by two commercially available personal computer programs, BILOG and MicroCAT, when used to calibrate a test that is currently used in higher education. A calibration of 1,000 randomly selected students' responses to a 72-question math…

A method is proposed to assess the importance of differential item functioning (DIF) by estimating the largest possible fraction of the population in which DIF does not occur, or equivalently, the smallest possible portion of the population in which DIF may occur. The approach is based on latent class (C. C. Clogg, 1981) or mixture concepts, and…

The usual assessment of speededness for rights-only scored tests does not account for the possibility that examinees respond in a random or patterned fashion to the items at the end of the test as the time limit approaches. This study represented an attempt to determine if Sections 2 and 3 of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are…

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) manages the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NABPLEX). A new Scope of Pharmacy Practice study was completed in 1994, and representatives of NABP and the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities of Canada met in 1995 to discuss the possibility of…

Traditional approaches to the investigation of the objectivity of ratings for constructed-response items are based on classical test theory, which is item-dependent and sample-dependent. Item response theory overcomes this drawback by decomposing item difficulties into genuine difficulties and rater severity. In so doing, objectivity of ability…

Clear descriptions of job expertise are required to support applications and improvements in personnel training and job performance. This report describes a practical approach to task analysis that integrates the issues, content, and methods of cognitive science and personnel psychology. Cognitively oriented task analysis employs a breadth, then…

Recent advances in psychometrics and computer technology encourage the development of model-based methods of individualized testing on a microcomputer, where each examinee receives short tests and where the number of pretest items that can be administered is severely restricted. On-line (i.e., data is collected on operational equipment) methods…

In the periodic testing environment associated with conventional paper-and-pencil tests, the frequency with which items are seen by test-takers is tightly controlled in advance of testing by policies that regulate both the reuse of test forms and the frequency with which candidates may take the test. In the continuous testing environment…

The design of vocabulary tests, particularly for English as a Second Language, is discussed. The discussion is intended to help language teachers with little or no knowledge of testing gain a better understanding of vocabulary testing. First, a set of principles for guiding the writing of vocabulary tests are outlined, presented in the form of…