This report documents the technology initiatives of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) in two broad areas: (1) using technology to improve the quality, utility, and feasibility of existing measures; and (2) using technology to design and develop new assessments and measurement approaches available…

The objective of this study was to investigate the emergence of a "mindy" (a unit of mind). The mindy is characterized as an open, organized, discrete, and kinematic mental shape. The study was the sequel to research on the emergence of mental shape (R. Laassonen, 1993). The subjects were 84 students, aged 13 to 16 years and…

A study was conducted to inquire into serial and parallel relations of information processing. A hypothesis was derived from earlier studies, and it was assumed that serial processing exceeds parallel processing in time. A figure-type test was constructed with two items. The reliability of the measure was examined with the coefficient of…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) is a study that focuses on children's early school experiences beginning with kindergarten. The ECLS was developed by the National Center for Education Statistics. Approximately 23,000 children were selected as they entered kindergarten, and were followed as they moved through fifth grade. This paper…

Intended for classroom teachers who have English Language Learners (ELLs--non-native speakers of English who are experiencing difficulty in learning academic content), this guidebook provides criteria to be included in the development of performance-based assessment tasks. It assists classroom teachers to develop assessments to: determine whether…

The operating characteristics of 114 mathematics pretest items from the Praxis I: Computer Based Test were analyzed in terms of item attributes and test developers' judgments of item difficulty. Item operating characteristics were defined as the difficulty, discrimination, and asymptote parameters of a three parameter logistic item response theory…

This is an age of backlash, as illustrated by many developments in the field of education. Backlash against performance assessment is very evident, but it must be remembered that backlash has its uses. It forces advocates to rethink, reformulate, and restate why they put so much faith in the program under attack. Events have pushed advocates to…

Test data from 200 examinees from the Spanish Teacher Certification Examination and 75 examinees from the French Teacher Certification Examination were used in a study of scale drift in sequentially equated test forms. Using sampling with replacement, 1,000 samples of 100 examinees each for Spanish and 1,000 samples of 50 each for French were…

An instrument was developed to identify schools that might be more prone to the occurrence of violence. The first draft of the instrument was developed by a research analyst, the project evaluator, the school resource officer at a junior high school, and school officials. This draft went through several pilot administrations, revisions, and factor…

This report focuses on results of a systematic study of instructional assessments of early literacy designed by teachers and other educators for use in K-3 classrooms. The report presents the methodology and coding scheme used for collecting classroom-based measures and evaluating their content. It provides data about how reading and writing…

This paper offers recommendations to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on the development of the background questionnaire for the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). The recommendations are from the viewpoint of a researcher interested in applying sophisticated statistical models to address important issues in adult…

This book is intended to help parents understand more about the tests their children take in school. The pros and cons of different types of tests are explained, and the proper use of standardized tests is discussed. Each chapter contains a brief summary of the topic, with follow-up activities and a list of resources a parent could bring to the…

The College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), a component of Florida's system of educational accountability, is a lower-division college achievement test measuring student achievement of college-level communication and mathematics skills. Effective January 1996, students meeting certain requirements were exempt from the CLAST. This report…

The goal of this series of guides is to show Texas educators what components of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum are eligible for testing on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and end-of-course tests. This booklet contains information for tests administered beginning in the 10th grade as graduation…

This study tested the hypothesis that the common approach to test construction in which recognition questions (RQs), such as multiple-choice items, are followed by constructed response questions (CRQs) encourages students to use the informationally rich RQs to gain marks on the CRQs, thus introducing Local Item Dependence (LID) and inflating the…