Essential for an effective criterion-referenced testing program is a set of test items that are "valid" indicators of the objectives they have been designed to measure. Unfortunately, the complex matter of assessing item validity has received only limited attention from educational measurement specialists. One promising approach to the item…

For almost 20 years, the Portland public schools have maintained a testing program anchored in locally constructed tests. The district's newly developed tests are called goal-referenced tests, a version of criterion-referenced tests, that meet the district's purposes because they reflect what well-qualified teachers in the district believe should…

This volume contains descriptions and statistical properties of test scales used with grade 10 through grade 12 students in the National Longitudinal Study of Mathematical Abilities (NLSMA). Each scale is designed to measure a specified content or psychological area chosen as a dependent variable for the study. The scales are briefly identified…

This volume contains descriptions and statistical properties of test scales used with grade seven through grade eight students in the National Longitudinal Study of Mathematical Abilities (NLSMA). Each scale is designed to measure a specified content or psychological area chosen as a dependent variable for the study. The scales are briefly…

The major task of the methodology in evaluation is the development of new ways of helping the content specialist construct and evaluate educational products. Data collection and analysis--paying attention to both the unit of study and the distributions of scores in tests, as well as the mean--are important. Reexamining the nature of items used in…

A 1-year postdoctoral research training program prepared one trainee in early childhood education during 1966-67. Flexible arrangements allowed this mature trainee to plan and follow his own program in consultation with the staff of the Research and Development Center in Educational Stimulation at the University of Georgia. Experimentation in…

This report contains the results of the first statewide educational learner pilot assessment in Wisconsin. The objectives of the program were: (1) to develop and refine the statewide assessment process including instrument development, instrument administration, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of the results; (2) to provide a…

A series of four vocabulary norming tests was used to develop a large, homogeneous pool of vocabulary test items for use in computer-administered adaptive testing research. Five hundred seventy-five unique vocabulary knowledge items were divided among the four norming tests, and administered to separate groups of college undergraduates. Norming…

A two-stage adaptive test and a conventional peaked test were constructed and administered on a time-shared computer system to students in undergraduate psychology courses. (The two-stage adaptive test consisted of a routing test followed by one of a series of measurement tests.) Comparison of the score distributions showed that the two-stage test…

The suggestion that multiple-choice items can be converted to true-false items without essentially changing what the item measures and with possible improvement in efficiency is investigated. Each of the 90 four-choice items in a natural science test was rewritten into a pair of true-false items, one true, one false. The resulting 180 items were…

Equations are derived to enable the graphic approximation of the item parameters of the stochastic mental test models, i.e., the generalized normal ogive and logistic models. The item parameters for the models are discriminatory power, difficulty, and probability of chance success. Suggested uses for the approximations were to provide a basis for…

This study was designed to assess the conceptual structure of the Task of Public Education Opinionnaire (TPE). Since the development of the instrument, several psychometric techniques have been formulated. Two of those methods, image component and alpha factor analysis, were applied to the items of the TPE after the correlation matrices were…

A subject by item matrix of test responses is shown to be a useful heuristic in criterion referenced and norm referenced test analysis, and in the teaching of measurement. The pattern of responses within the matrix provides indications of item interactions, weak deceptors, and conventional test statistics. The strong visual analogy between the…

The basic objective of the study was to determine the validity of four new indices of item quality. Three of these were based on analyses of differential, empirical weights for item choices, and the fourth was designed to measure the relative attractiveness of distracters. A secondary objective was to ascertain the validity of the conventional…

During the past decade both the Guilford and Torrence groups have developed numerable measures to assess creative potential. Many of these measures purport to evaluate "creativity" but one element seems to be lacking in each: i.e., the last of "reality-based, real world measures" which would allow relevant response tendencies…