This Digest describes matrix sampling of test items as an approach to achieving broad coverage while minimizing testing time per student. Matrix sampling involves developing a complete set of items judged to cover the curriculum, then dividing the items into subsets and administering one subset to each student. Matrix sampling, by limiting the…

This paper proposes criteria for determining necessary assumptions of arguments. In their book Evaluating Critical Thinking, S. Norris and R. Ennis (1989) state that although it is tempting to think that certain assumptions are logically necessary for an argument or position, they are not. Many writers of introductory logic texts and the authors…

The purpose of the study was to compare reliability estimates for a test composed of stimulus-dependent testlets as derived from item scores, testlet scores, and under the univariate generalizability theory and multivariate generalizability theory designs, as well as to determine the influence of the number of testlets and the number of items per…

This document contains a description of the Georgia High School Graduation Test in mathematics. The test item specifications, reflecting the Georgia State Quality Core Curriculum, are used by writers and reviewers who are responsible for the development of test items. Much of the content in the description is based on earlier test versions…

Advances in cognitive psychology deepen the understanding of how students gain and use knowledge. Advances in technology make it possible to capture more complex performances in assessment settings, by including, for example, simulation, interactivity, collaboration, and constructed response. The challenge is in knowing just how to put this new…

This position paper discusses ethical standards in test preparation and administration. Guidelines for creating a situation that will assist students in doing their best on tests are included. These standards were developed in a series of seminars sponsored by the Washington Educational Research Association in 1998-1999. The standards stress that…

This overview of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests is designed to help schools implement the Massachusetts"Curriculum Frameworks." For this fourth administration of the MCAS tests in 2001, the design of the tests remains essentially the same, but there are some changes highlighted in this overview. The first…

This book explores the links between assessment and instruction and provides a jargon-free look at classroom and large-scale test construction, interpretation, and application. The book offers a "crash course" in instructionally focused assessment with practical advice for dealing with testing targets and standards-based achievement tests. The…

Papers in this collection were commissioned for a workshop designed to share advances in the cognitive sciences and methods of measurement and their implications for improving educational assessment. A second goal of the workshop was to delve into the role that technology could play in bringing these advances together. The papers are: (1)…

For a growing number of test translations, there is a need for equating that provides scores that can be used interchangeably for both source- and target-language forms, but basic equating requirements cannot usually be met in the cross-lingual case. The situation is more problematic in verbal tests, where translation has more impact on item…

Three groups of persons are involved in the testing enterprise: test producers, test users, and test takers. A wide literature is available to guide the first two groups, but only recently have measurement professionals considered the interests of test takers in any careful way. The content of this chapter is presented as a set of 26…

New items are being calibrated for the next generation of the computerized adaptive (CAT) version of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) (Forms 5 and 6). The requirements that the items be "good" three-parameter logistic (3-PL) model items and typically "like" items in the previous CAT-ASVAB tests have…

Item selection methods in computerized adaptive testing (CAT) can yield extremely skewed item exposure distribution in which items with high "a" values may be over-exposed while those with low "a" values may never be selected. H. Chang and Z. Ying (1999) proposed the a-stratified design (ASTR) that attempts to equalize item…

Outside of large-scale testing programs, the computerized adaptive test (CAT) has thus far had only limited impact on measurement practice. In smaller-scale testing contexts, limited data are often available, which precludes the establishment of calibrated item pools for use by traditional (i.e., item response theory (IRT) based) CATs. This paper…

Researchers spend much time and effort developing measures, including measures of students? conceptual knowledge. In an effort to make such assessments easier to design, the Principled Assessment Designs for Inquiry (PADI) project has developed a framework for designing tasks and to illustrate that its use has ?reverse engineered? several …