Challenging behaviors and poor student performance are often attributed to many of society's ills. As a result of the presence of such factors in some students' lives, changing these students' behavior in the classroom is seen as futile unless one can change their nonschool environment. To facilitate the reader's capability to develop intervention…

We conducted a pilot study to see how the GED Mathematics Test could be administered on computer with embedded accessibility tools. We examined test scores and test-taker experience. Nineteen GED test centers across five states and 216 randomly assigned GED Tests candidates participated in the project. GED candidates completed two GED mathematics…

This study examined the role of domain-general and domain-specific linguistic knowledge in the assessment of academic English language proficiency using a latent variable modeling approach. The goal of the study was to examine if modeling of domain-specific variance results in improved model fit and well-defined latent factors. Analyses were…

In the transition years, Grades 7 to 9, the shift from natural numbers to rational numbers and the associated multiplicative concepts prove challenging for many learners. The new concepts, operations and notation must be mastered if the student is to thereafter rise to meet the challenges of algebra and more advanced and powerful mathematics. The…

Extensive research has been conducted on improving student academic achievement and techniques to improve student learning. There has been little research that addresses the relationship between student achievement and teacher performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between performance-based teacher evaluation…

This paper discusses issues related to the design and psychometric work for mixed-format tests --tests containing both multiple-choice (MC) and constructed-response (CR) items. The issues of validity, fairness, reliability and score consistency can be addressed but for mixed-format tests there are many decisions to be made and no examination or…

Noting the widespread use of multiple-choice items in tests in English language education in Thailand, this study compared their effect against that of constructed-response items. One hundred and fifty-two university undergraduates took a test of English structure first in constructed-response format, and later in three, stem-equivalent…

This study aimed to explore the effects of marking and metacognition-evaluated feedback (MEF) in computer-based testing (CBT) on student performance and review behavior. Marking is a strategy, in which students place a question mark next to a test item to indicate an uncertain answer. The MEF provided students with feedback on test results…

In developing alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS), several states have modified existing test items with the aim of enhancing accessibility and reducing difficulty for students with disabilities. Using Grade 8 multiple-choice test items in unmodified and modified forms, two studies examined student…

This study investigated the effects of using modified items in achievement tests to enhance accessibility. An experiment determined whether tests composed of modified items would reduce the performance gap between students eligible for an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) and students not eligible, and the…

In this study we examined variations of the nonequivalent groups equating design for tests containing both multiple-choice (MC) and constructed-response (CR) items to determine which design was most effective in producing equivalent scores across the two tests to be equated. Using data from a large-scale exam, this study investigated the use of…

The increased use of polytomous item formats has led assessment developers to pay greater attention to the detection of differential item functioning (DIF) in these items. DIF occurs when an item performs differently for two contrasting groups of respondents (e.g., males versus females) after controlling for differences in the abilities of the…

[Slides] presented at the Annual Meeting of National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) in San Diego, CA in April 2009. This presentation describes how the vehicles for gathering student evidence--task models and test specifications--are developed.

In this study, a data base containing the responses of 40,000 candidates to 90 multiple-choice questions was used to mimic data sets for 50-item tests under the "nonequivalent groups with anchor test" (NEAT) design. Using these smaller data sets, we evaluated the performance of five linear equating methods for the NEAT design with five levels of…

Score equity assessment is an important analysis to ensure inferences drawn from test scores are comparable across subgroups of examinees. The purpose of the present evaluation was to assess the extent to which the Grade 8 NAEP Math and Reading assessments for 2005 were equivalent across selected states. More specifically, the present study…