The Early Development Index (EDI) is a teacher-completed checklist, intended to be a population-level tool to measure children's readiness for school and to alert communities to potential developmental problems in children. In response to the increasing popularity of the EDI, this paper provides a critical and timely evaluation and identifies the…

This article describes a model for response times that is proposed as a supplement to the usual factor-analytic model for responses to graded or more continuous typical-response items. The use of the proposed model together with the factor model provides additional information about the respondent and can potentially increase the accuracy of the…

This article describes the literature-based, testable, formative Patient-Centered Culturally Sensitive Health Care Model that explains the associations between patient-centered culturally sensitive health care, health-promoting treatment behaviors, and health outcomes and statuses. An intervention program based on the model and its foundational…

Standard item response theory (IRT) models posit latent variables to account for regularities in students' performance on test items. They can accommodate learning only if the expected changes in performance are smooth, and, in an appropriate metric, uniform over items. Wilson's "Saltus" model extends the ideas of IRT to development that…

This study investigated the intrajudge consistency of Angoff-based item performance estimates. The examination used was a certification examination in an emergency medicine specialty. Ten expert panelists rated the same 24 items twice during an operational standard setting study. Results indicate that the panelists were highly consistent, in terms…

Binary or graded disagree-agree responses to attitude items are often collected for the purpose of attitude measurement. Although such data are sometimes analyzed with cumulative measurement models, recent investigations suggest that unfolding models are more appropriate (J. S. Roberts, 1995; W. H. Van Schuur and H. A. L. Kiers, 1994). Advances in…

Test theory encompasses models and methods for drawing inferences about what students know and can do, cast in a framework of ideas from measurement, education, and psychology. The emerging paradigm of cognitive psychology prompts new considerations about collecting and interpreting evidence, suggesting alternative models for the nature,…

Modern applications of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) are typically grounded in item response theory (IRT; Lord, 1980). While the IRT foundations of adaptive testing provide a number of approaches to adaptive test scoring that may seem natural and efficient to psychometricians, these approaches may be more demanding for test takers, test…

This study examined the relationship between scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) and the older Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). School psychologists in Wisconsin were asked to provide data on 300 special education re-evaluations completed during the 1992-93 academic year. Pearson product…

Test-retest reliabilities and practice effect magnitudes were considered for nine computer-simulated tasks of everyday cognition and five traditional neuropsychological tests. The nine simulated everyday memory tests were from the Memory Assessment Clinic battery as follows: (1) simple reaction time while driving; (2) divided attention (driving…

The lack of systematic psychometric information on the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ) was addressed by investigating the factor structure and reliability of the eight-factor clinical scale model (mental illness, cry for help, right to die, religion, impulsivity, normality, aggression, and moral evil), developed for interpreting responses to…

Since 1985 several procedures for computerized test construction using linear programing techniques have been described in the literature. To apply these procedures successfully, suitable item banks are needed. The problem of designing item banks based on item response theory (IRT) is addressed. A procedure is presented that determines whether an…

Some of the issues regarding the estimation of reliability for performance assessments are explored, and a methodology is suggested for determination of reliability. In performance assessment, the magnitude of the reliability coefficient may be less than that obtained for a standardized test, since part of the potential use of performance…

Discussed are nine questions regarding standard setting issues in educational testing: (1) Should normative or content-referenced standards be used? (2) Different standard setting methods yield different results. Does this finding present a problem? (3) Assess the adequacy of the grounding of various methods of standard setting in psychological…

Traditionally, the psychometric qualities of instruments used in guidance research are not reported and concerns of validity are passed over lightly. This article examines this problem by delineating instrument development from the identification of content through initial validation processes. Procedures for item selection, item validation, and…