A study examined the usefulness of "dangerous answers", or incorrect answers that if implemented, would be dangerous in patient care, as a technique for scoring on certifying examinations and found that 10% of the passing students gave more than average dangerous answers. (MSE)

Tests are proposed for testing the conditional independence assumption without first specifying a parametric form for the nondecreasing item characteristic curves. In an example, the conditional independence hypothesis is rejected for all possible forms of monotone item characteristic curves. (Author/BW)

Differences in test scores can be attributed to various causes, including genuine knowledge differences, test-taking abilities, and irrelevant and biased questions. The Golden Rule reform is a safeguard to ensure that standardized tests measure relevant knowledge differences between test takers and not irrelevant, culturally specific factors. (JAZ)

Describes three examination questions which could be used in college chemistry courses. Discusses each problem and gives acceptable solutions. Problems include: "A Multi-Topic Problem for General Chemistry"; "Consumption of Air by Biuret Reagent--a Question Involving Experimental Design"; and "An Instructive Problem in Heterogeneous Equilibrium."…

Reports on relative importance to rehabilitation counselors of professional competencies, as measured by the Rehabilitation Skills Inventory (RSI). Draws implications for counselors, supervisors, educators, agencies, and clients. Lists 114 items on RSI and ranks items within 10 clusters according to importance scores. (Author)

This paper describes a simulation that determines the adequacy of various indices as decision criteria for assessing unidimensionality. Using the sum of absolute residuals from the two-parameter latent trait model, indices were obtained that could discriminate between one latent trait and more than one latent trait. (Author/BW)

Investigated the utility of subtle items for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory PD and MA scales and compared college students' (N=98) scores on these scales with scores on similar instruments. Results showed that obvious items are of greatest utility and contribute most to the prediction of criterion behaviors. (LLL)

Describes the theoretical framework, measurement properties, predictive power, and reliability and validity of the Drug Education School Evaluation Instrument (DESEI), used to determine the effectiveness of the North Carolina Drug Education Schools. The DESEI is included. (BH)

Defends the CUNY-WAT against the charges made by Fishman (CS 731 865). Offers suggestions for those wishing to undertake research into the choice of topics for writing assessment tests. (FL)

Explains that a good essay question should be as specific in what it asks for as the students are expected to be in their answers. (HOD)

The purpose of this study was to investigate further the effect of differential item performance by males and females on tests which have different item arrangements. The study allows for a more accurate evaluation of whether differential sensitivity to reinforcement strategies is a factor in performance discrepancies for males and females.…

Two factors, language difficulty and option set convergence, were experimentally manipulated and their effects on item difficulty assessed. Option convergence was found to have a significant effect on item difficulty while the effect of language difficulty was not significant. (Author/BW)

This research applied a cognitive model to identify item features that lead to irrelevant variance on the Test of Spoken English[TM] (TSE[R]). The TSE is an assessment of English oral proficiency and includes an item that elicits a description of a statistical graph. This item type sometimes appears to tap graph-reading skills--an irrelevant…

This paper examines item response theory (IRT) scale transformations and IRT scale linking methods used in the Non-Equivalent Groups with Anchor Test (NEAT) design to equate two tests, X and Y. It proposes a unifying approach to the commonly used IRT linking methods: mean-mean, mean-var linking, concurrent calibration, Stocking and Lord and…

This report, the fifth annual report on the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), provides policymakers, educators, parents, and the community with a general accounting and precise overview of the performance of Colorado's third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grade students relative to the Colorado State Model…