The purpose of this study was to determine if a high school graduation examination influences instructional practices. Data were obtained from a survey instrument given to a stratified random sample of Tennessee science teachers who teach the content that is tested on their state's high school graduation examination. An analysis showed teachers…

The General Academic Learning Experience (GALE) is an assessment of community college student knowledge in the liberal arts. The study involved the design and administration of an instrument, which included a demographic survey and a multiple-choice content test. In total, over 2,500 students from 10 colleges in Southern California participated.…

Grades in college freshman English composition courses were predicted from high school rank in class, multiple-choice writing scores, essays, current Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Verbal scores, and scores from a revised version of the SAT-Verbal. Data were obtained from 21 English courses at 17 different colleges with some supplementary data…

Two frequently cited guidelines for writing multiple choice test item stems are: (1) the stem can be written in either a question or statement-to-be-completed format; and (2) only positively worded stems should be used. These guidelines were evaluated in a survey of the test item banks of 13 nationally administered examinations in the physician…

The testing of grammar is one of the mainstays of language testing, since it can be argued that a basic knowledge of grammar underlies the ability to use language to express meaning. The most common way of testing grammatical knowledge is the multiple-choice test, and the most common multiple-choice item is one in which the student selects a word…

Although the use of test results to demonstrate educational shortcomings is important, tests and assessments are also expected to be an instrument of reform. In fact, they are often expected to provide the primary means of creating educational reform. The minimum competency testing movement and the expansion of the use of test results for…

This report describes an experiment in constructed response testing undertaken in conjunction with the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Constructed response questions are those that require students to produce their own response rather than selecting the correct answer from several options. Participants in this experiment…

One of the most influential contemporary trends in educational evaluation in the United States is the move away from traditional testing methods toward "authentic assessments," which are designed to measure student performance of skills, abilities, and knowledge directly. While there is no consensus as to precisely what constitutes authentic…

The functioning of a cognitive taxonomy within the test specifications of an allied health certification examination was studied. The taxonomy used was a simplification of the scheme of B. S. Bloom (1956), in which items were classified as comprehension, application, or analysis. Whether items written purposely to assess higher order cognitive…

This study considered the effects on lesson completion time of four forms of immediate feedback. Thirty-two low-ability eleventh grade students were randomly assigned to one of four treatments. Each student received four one-page social studies reading passages. Each passage averaged 350 words in length. Eight 4-alternative multiple choice…

An alternative to multiple-choice (MC) testing is suggested as it pertains to the field of radiologic technology education. General principles for writing MC questions are given and contrasted with a new type of MC question, the alternate-choice (AC) question, in which the answer choices are embedded in the question in a short form that resembles…

In preparation for a study of essay questions and other forms of open-ended exercises in the California Golden State Examination for biology, the functioning of open-ended biology items in another examination was explored. The Golden State Examination program offers honors credit to students who wish to qualify for admission to programs in…

The dominant issues in considering the use of tests developed outside the classroom to measure the impact of curriculum reform on higher order thinking are reviewed by a panel interviewed for this discussion. Panel members are: (1) Stuart Kahl, (2) Robert Linn, (3) Senta A. Raizen, (4) Lauren Resnick, and (5) Thomas A. Romberg. It is conceded…

Preliminary psychometric data assessing the reliability and validity of a method used to measure the diagnostic reasoning and problem-solving skills of predoctoral students in orthodontia are described. The measurement approach consisted of sets of patient demographic data and dental photos and x-rays, accompanied by a set of 33 multiple-choice…

The Alberta, Canada, Social Studies examination for grade 12 contains 70 multiple choice questions covering the following subjects: political ideologies, economics, world geography, world history, and current events. The questions are often related to political cartoons, charts, maps, or a series of quotations that precede the question(s). Two…