This paper deals with test fairness regarding a test consisting of two parts: (1) a "common" section, taken by all students; and (2) a "variable" section, in which some students may answer a different set of questions from other students. For example, a test taken by several thousand students each year contains a common multiple-choice portion and…

Oral production (the speech act) and the comprehension of written and oral texts have long been treated as separate entities when they could be used in an integrated approach to teach a broader range of language skills. The receptive aspects of the speech act should be brought into language instruction and used to select materials for teaching…

A study attempted to estimate the instructional sensitivity of items in three reading comprehension tests in English as a second language (ESL). Instructional sensitivity is a test-item construct defined as the tendency for a test item to vary in difficulty as a function of instruction. Similar tasks were given to readers at different proficiency…

A study examined the effects of formal and informal learning environments on the storage and recall of lexical items in the first and second languages, paying specific attention to laterality and accuracy rates for tasks of varying difficulty. The study used the dichotic listening task and subjects whose first language was English and whose second…

Difficulty and discrimination ability were compared between multiple choice and short answer items in midterm and final examinations for the internal medicine course at Louisiana State University School of Dentistry. The examinations were administered to 67 sophomore dental students in that course. Additionally, the impact of the source of the…

This paper considers the feasibility of incorporating research results from cognitive science into the modeling of performance on psychometric tests and the construction of test items. The paper focuses on the feasibility of modeling performance on a three-dimensional rotation task within the context of Item Response Theory (IRT). To test the…

Standard procedures for estimating item parameters in Item Response Theory models make no use of auxiliary information about test items, such as their format or content, or the skills they require for solution. This paper describes a framework for exploiting this information, thereby enhancing the precision and stability of item parameter…

During the academic year of 1978-1979, a system for the early identification of students who were likely to have difficulty with the core curriculum in language and/or mathematics was introduced into the London, Canada, system at the kindergarten and grade 1 levels. In the two subsequent years the early identification system was extended to grades…

The "Test Development Notebook" is a resource designed for the preparation of tests of literal comprehension for students in grades 1 through 12. This volume contains 100 multiple-choice cloze exercises taken from consumer magazines, catalogs, instructions, advertisements, and contracts; and the accompanying answer key. Each exercise…

Statistical methods employed to test individual differences in dual-task performance and the existence of a general time-sharing ability are reviewed and critiqued. Specifically, both the types of data being collected and the types of data analysis procedures have been inadequate to the critical evaluation of a hypothetical…

Summary information and recommendations of the Nursing Delineation Study of the Kentucky Nursing Education Project are presented. Nursing tasks were identified, defined, and ranked as part of a systematic analysis of the nursing profession for the purposes of statewide planning. A 17-member task force represented the major domains of nursing…

The analysis of fit of data to a measurement model for graded responses is described. The model is an extension of Rasch's dichotomous model to formats which provide more than two levels of response to items. The model contains one parameter for each person and one parameter for each "step" in an item. A dichotomously-scored item…

The TESTFACT computer program and full-information factor analysis of test items were used in a computer simulation conducted to correct for the guessing effect. Full-information factor analysis also corrects for omitted items. The present version of TESTFACT handles up to five factors and 150 items. A preliminary smoothing of the tetrachoric…

Open testing and test disclosure legislation has fostered a renewed interest in the problems and issues associated with test equating. This paper focuses on a specific application of test equating, that of professional and occupational testing for certification and licensure. Test equating is the process of making test scores from different forms…

The development of distance and distributed learning environments on college campuses has created a need to reconsider traditional approaches to teaching and learning by integrating research and theories in human learning, pedagogy, and instructional technology. Creating effective and efficient multimedia for Web-based instruction requires a…