Describes various aspects and advantages of the use of rubrics as tools for assessment. Presents additive rubrics as assessment tools that allow students to assume responsibility for the quantity and quality of their work and to see its value beyond the letter grade they receive. (JRH)

Examined use of Bender Gestalt Visual-Motor Test with school-age adolescents over age 11. Mean error scores suggest that visual-motor development is not maturationally complete by age 11 years, 11 months. Suggests additional research focusing on extending normative sample or developing new scoring system for adolescents. (Author/NB)

Notes that the methods used to set standards for National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests suggest recommendations for state-level policymakers. Explains the national assessment, basic assumptions in setting performance standards on NAEP, selection of judges, standard-setting methodology for NAEP, and measurement issues in setting…

Given a Masters partial credit item with n known step difficulties, conditions are stated for the existence of a set of (locally) independent Rasch binary items such that their raw score and the partial credit raw score have identical probability density functions. (Author/SLD)

Four indexes of agreement between ratings of a person that correct for chance and are interpretable as intraclass correlation coefficients for different analysis of variance models are investigated. Relationships among the estimators are established for finite samples, and the equivalence of these estimators in large samples is demonstrated. (SLD)

Offers a framework (personality type theory) with which to understand differing perspectives on assessment. Aims to encourage readers to consider how their own preferences might influence their attitudes toward assessment in general, and toward particular assessment activities in the classroom. (PA)

The relations between Angoff ratings (minimum passing levels) and the actual "p" values for borderline examinees were studied with 115 examinees taking the Certified Financial Planner examination. Findings do not suggest that the Angoff judges' task is nearly impossible, but they do suggest the need to improve standard-setting…

Investigated item-by-item, holistic, and "trait" scoring with three mathematics performance-based tasks completed by 53 to 79 junior high and senior high school students per task. Results suggest that holistic scoring and item-by-item scoring methods provide similar information, but that trait score tapped into different aspects of…

Used the PsycLIT database to study six methods of computing the scholarly productivity of authors. Findings for 323 counseling-psychology faculty indicate the advisability of using simple publication totals, because the psychometric properties of more labor-intensive methods are not known, and ethical guidelines for including coauthors are neither…

Used generalizability theory to investigate the impact of the number of raters and the type of decision (relative versus absolute) on the reliability of writing scores. Results from 251 middle school students and 20 intermediate grade students show that reliability coefficients decline as the number of raters declines and when absolute decisions…

Describes a pilot project in the state of Alaska and one mathematics teacher's experiences in this project studying and using performance-based assessment techniques and developing a scoring guide for performance-based assessments. (ASK)

Analysis of effects of different starting points on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II Mental Scale found that starting at the child's chronological age consistently inflated scores, whereas starting at the lowest item set skewed results in the opposite direction. Testing downward until all items are passed and upward until all items are…

Performed a comparative analysis of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) items administered to 4,430 older adults and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living administered to 605 people with rheumatoid arthritis scoring both with Likert and Rasch measurement models. Findings show the superiority of the Rasch approach over the Likert method. (SLD)

Defines a two-stage process by which a holistic rubric is applied to the assessment of open-ended items, such as writing samples. Indicates that the use of rating augmentation can improve the inter-rater reliability of holistic assessments, as indicated by generalizability phi coefficients, correlation coefficients, and percent agreement indices.…

Examines student experience of criterion-referenced assessment and, in particular, a criteria assessment grid developed for the Business School at Oxford Brookes University (UK). Findings revealed that students desired more reliable marking processes and clearer guidelines on assessment requirements and criteria. The criterion-referenced grid,…