Development of the test instrument in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was based on the expertise of many researchers, including "distinguished scholars from 10 countries" who participated on the TIMSS Subject Matter Advisory Committee. However, a close examination of the TIMSS Science items suggests that not…

The "CSE Program Evaluation Kit" is a series of nine books intended to assist people conducting program evaluations. This volume, the eighth in the kit, is divided into three sections, each dealing with an important function that quantitative analysis serves in evaluation: summarizing scores through measures of central tendency and…

Instruments measuring Carl Jung's (1921/1971) theory of psychological types have been widely used in various counseling contexts. The most popular measure of types has been the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (K. Briggs and I. Myers). This measure has been criticized for dichotomous scoring, forced-choice response formats, and differential gender…

Methods are discussed that can be used to investigate the fit of an item score pattern to a test model. Model-based tests and personality inventories are administered to more than 100 million people a year and, as a result, individual fit is of great concern. Item Response Theory (IRT) modeling and person-fit statistics that are formulated in the…

Given the widespread interest in the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) School Leaders Licensure Assessment, this paper explores the implications of this type of assessment for preparation programs in educational administration. The paper examines the relationship of the six ISSLC standards to various accrediting practices as…

The logistic positive exponent family (LPEF) of models has been proposed by F. Samejima (1998) for dichotomous responses. This family of models is characterized by point-asymmetric item characteristic curves (ICCs). This paper introduces the LPEF family, and discusses its usefulness in educational measurement and the implications of its use.…

This paper describes a work in progress on a second edition of "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain," also known as "Bloom's Taxonomy" (B. Bloom and others, Eds., 1956). The new edition will be grounded in the collective wisdom of the original…

The standards outlined in this book have been developed to provide criteria for the evaluation of tests, testing practices, and the effects of test use. The "Standards" provides a frame of reference to ensure that relevant issues are addressed. The first part of the book, "Test Construction, Evaluation, and Documentation,"…

This study expands on previous National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) work that has undertaken the articulation of the academic language construct for broad educational purposes. The primary goal was to describe the language of textbook selections in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and organization of…

Teachers must evaluate, judge, and award grades but all too often they evaluate students merely to submit that time-honored course grade. The use of measurement instruments, their reliability and validity, and the role of instructional objectives are presented in the light of their use in educational evaluation. (DS)

Describes a kind of final exam questions that encourage creative thinking and problem solving and involvement by the students. Five examples from a course on neoclassic literature are provided. (TO)

A report on a project to develop animated test films to be used in evaluating learning in elementary-level science education. (Author)

Some examples of how students read test items are presented. The results of interviews with students who have taken a multiple-choice test indicate that they do not always solve problems on the test the way we think they do. (JP)

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a "natural" four-alternative multiple choice item represents the same psychological task as a five-choice item rescored as a four-choice item. (Author)