Since 1970 the CPA Law Exam has been heavily weighted in a few of the 14 content areas, raising the question of whether or not there are too many legal areas for which the student is held responsible. (Journal availability: Fred B. Rothman & Co., 10368 W. Centennial Road, Littleton, CO 80123, $4.00.) (MSE)

The inclusion of a position on standardized testing in the 1980 Democratic Party platform established testing as a political and legislative issue. Testing regulations have been introduced in 20 states and in Congess, involving critics and supporters such as: the National Education Association, Nader's Public Interest Research Groups, and the…

Shows why the role of intelligence in everyday life is often underestimated, drawing an analogy that examines outcomes of life as analogs of items within classical test theory. In addition, a population-IQ model is explained that tests for the pooled effects of intelligence at individual, individual context, and population levels. (SLD)

Compared the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA) score profiles of different cultural groups, using 442 White and 435 non-White subjects drawn from the kindergarten through grade 12 subset of WJTCA standardization data. Determined that data allowed for classification of the subtests by both curve and cultural effects criteria.…

Education standards are left to the discretion of individual states. However, efforts to help states and local school districts define world-class standards are intensifying. The U.S. Department of Education, the National Education Goals Panel, and New Standards, a partnership of 17 states and 6 school districts, are among those involved. (MLF)

Educational assessment concerns inference about student knowledge, skills, and accomplishments. Test theory has evolved in part to address questions of weight, coverage, and import of data. Resulting concepts and techniques can be viewed as applications of more general principles for inference in the presence of uncertainty. (SLD)

Explains and contrasts the techniques and philosophies of norm-referenced (NRT) and criterion-referenced tests (CRT). NRTs are criticized for lack of useful information and control. CRTs are usually teacher-made and customized to fit the classroom needs, offering more control over test content, but few teachers are prepared to develop them. (SM)

This paper provides the basis for understanding score equating through item response theory (IRT). Theoretical justifications and practical advantages of IRT true-score test procedures are discussed. Three steps in the equating process are specified, and a self-test is included. (SLD)

Results of a reanalysis of previously published data (B. M. Byrne, 1989) support the correlated uniqueness model, diagnostic tests of the validity of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multitrait multimethod (MTMM) solutions, inclusion of external validity in MTMM design, and application of factorial invariance to test stability of CFA-MTMM…

Three analytic approaches were used in a framework of classical test theory to examine the construct validity of a mathematics assessment of 16 constructed response items. Results from 280 elementary school students across four age groups suggest a developmental structure of tasks and subdomains that was generally consistent with the test's…

This volume is the fourth in a series for college faculty and advanced graduate students, "Survival Skills for Scholars." It offers practical advice for developing, using, and grading classroom examinations, focusing on traditional multiple-choice and constructed-response tests rather than alternative assessments. (SLD)

Multiple-choice testing (MCT) has several advantages which are becoming more relevant in the current financial climate. In particular, they can be machine marked. As an objective testing method it is particularly relevant to engineering and other factual courses, but MCTs are not widely used in engineering because students can benefit from…

In May 2001, students in the author's Advanced Placement (AP) United States History class were embroiled in a controversy surrounding the AP exam, in particular, having access to the exam's Document Based Question (DBQ) and free response portion prior to the test's administration. Prior to the exam, the College Board had provided a fifty-year time…

Two local methods for observed-score equating are applied to the problem of equating an adaptive test to a linear test. In an empirical study, the methods were evaluated against a method based on the test characteristic function (TCF) of the linear test and traditional equipercentile equating applied to the ability estimates on the adaptive test…

Brief explanations are presented of some of the different methods used to score multiple-choice tests; and some studies of partial information, guessing strategies, and test-taking behaviors are reviewed. Studies are grouped in three categories of effort to improve scoring: (1) those that require extra effort from the examinee to answer…