Provides guidelines for designing or evaluating tests for measuring student competencies in an accounting class. (GC)

Examined the validity coefficients of all possible WISC-R short forms of several subtests. Comparisons were made between coefficients given by McNemar's and Silverstein's formulas to determine "best" short forms for different uses. Results indicated only a slight difference between short forms selected by the two methods. (Author)

Investigated robustness of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) factor structure. Comparisons of the loadings obtained with generalization sample and 10 1/2-year-old national standardization sample suggest high degree of similarity in composition, magnitude, and pattern. Findings highly support robustness of WISC-R's…

Aims to help instructors make more valid test questions, particularly multiple-choice ones. Emphasis is placed on multiple-choice questions to show the wealth of opportunities they offer for testing because of their uses, objectivity, and ease of grading. Discusses test scheduling, construction, and evaluation and follow-up. (CT)

An approach is described for the characterization of test questions in terms of the information in a passage relevant to answering them and the nature of the relationship of this information to the questions. The approach offers several advantages over previous algorithms for the production of test items. (Author/GDC)

A new measure of similarity between persons applicable in Q-analysis is proposed. It allows assumptions of non-orthogonality between the items, across which the similarity is computed. The similarity measure may also be applied in an R-analysis. (Author/JKS)

A study of the development and application of dental health education tests as part of the dental health curriculum is described. (YG)

Four statistics are proposed for the detection of local dependence (LD) among items analyzed using item response theory. Simulation results show that, under the locally dependent condition, the X-squared and G-squared indexes appear to be sensitive in detecting LD or multidimensionality among items. (SLD)

Discusses substantive scale construction and the need for Rasch measurement practitioners to give careful consideration to designing variables based on theory, item construction, and models for the analysis of data. (SLD)

Any item response theory (IRT) researcher or practitioner will find something of interest in this book, which covers a broad range of topics in essays by well-known researchers. Chapters are organized into sections devoted to parametric and nonparametric IRT topics. (SLD)

Studied the Work Satisfaction subscale of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) to determine the difference between measuring work stress and measuring work satisfaction. Results from samples of 1,623 and 314 adults provide evidence supporting the removal of some contaminating items from the JDI. (SLD)

Uses a framework previously developed to relate outcomes based education and B. Bloom's "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives" to consider ways in which modern test theory can be used to connect aspects of assessment to the curriculum framework and to consider insights this connection might provide. (SLD)

The process used by the National Association of Industrial Technology to develop a certification examination included a Delphi panel, validation of the prototype, and pretest with 311 examinees. Remaining issues in development of the test include item analysis. (Contains 19 references.) (SK)

Conducted a Rasch analysis of the psychometric qualities of the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP; G. Girolami and S. Campbell, 1994) for the purpose of reducing the length of the test while maintaining its precision as a measurement device. Using scores from 1,732 tests, the TIMP was reduced to 42 items to form a functional motor scale for…

Several classical approaches and alternative approaches to item selection for computerized adaptive testing (CAT) are reviewed and compared. The study also describes procedures for constrained CAT that may be added to classical item selection approaches to allow them to be used for applied testing. (TJH)