Instead of being devices for measuring what students have learned, tests should be instructional--the central vehicle for clarifying and setting intellectual standards. To regain control over testing and instruction, schools need to rethink their diploma requirements and grading systems. Then school transcripts will become trustworthy again.…

An optimal unbiased classification rule is proposed based on a longitudinal model for the measurement of change in ability. In general, the rule predicts future level of knowledge by using information about level of knowledge at entrance, its rate of growth, and the amount of within-individual variation. (SLD)

A computer simulation was undertaken to determine the effects of using Huynh's single-administration estimates of the decision consistency indices for agreement and coefficient kappa, under conditions that violated the beta-binomial assumption. Included in the investigation were two unimodal score distributions that fit the model and two bimodal…

This study examined three statistical methods for selecting items for mastery tests. One is the pretest-posttest method due to Cox and Vargas (1966); it is computationally simple, but has a number of serious limitations. The second is a latent trait method recommended by van der Linden (1981); it is computationally complex, but has a number of…

A classical problem in mastery testing is the choice of passing score and test length so that the mastery decisions are optimal. This problem has been addressed several times from a variety of viewpoints. In this paper, the usual indifference zone approach is adopted, with a new criterion for optimizing the passing score. Specifically,…

Occasionally, situations arise where mixtures of two binomials with one known success parameter are met. An example in educational testing is the mastery or random guessing model in which an examinee is supposed either to master the items or not to master them and to guess blindly. This paper gives moment estimators for such mixtures and presents…

This paper evaluates the magnitude of the total error in estimates of the difference between an examinee's domain score and the cutoff score. An observed score based on a random sample of items from the domain, and an estimated cutoff score derived from a judgmental standard setting procedure are assumed. The work of Brennan and Lockwood (1980) is…

The familiarity and use of direct and frequent measurement in special education was examined using three sample groups of teachers serving learning disabled students. Although most teachers were shown to be familiar with direct and frequent measurement strategies, relatively few were found to use them, in the belief that the repeated measures were…

The traditional reliability coefficient and standard error of measurement are not adequate measures of reliability for tests used to make pass/fail decisions. Answering the important reliability questions requires estimation of the joint distribution of true and observed scores. Lord's "Method 20" estimates this distribution without the…

Books, articles, and theses are included in this annotated bibliography on mastery learning. Approximately 100 citations are included covering the period from 1969 to 1979. (DS)

Discriminant analysis was used to predict the performance of medical students on a certifying examination, using available measures approximately seven months in advance of the examination. The purpose was to identify those students having the greatest chance of failing in order to provide them with remedial help. The linear discriminant function…

There is both less and more to mastery learning (ML) than meets the eye. Less because mastery learning is not based on a model of school learning, and more because it is the most optimistic statement we have about the power of education. The notions of setting achievement standards and letting time for completion vary, of using criterion…

Three quantitative measures which assess instructional material in terms of the rationale of adapting are reported. The first index is termed the consequence ratio, which evaluates diagnostic items in terms of how effectively time is used. The second measure, termed predictive validity, evaluates the accuracy of diagnostic test predictions. The…

This study examined three statistical methods for selecting items for mastery tests: (1) pretest-posttest; (2) latent trait; and (3) agreement statistics. The correlation between the latent trait method and agreement statistics, proposed here as an alternative, was substantial. Results for the pretest-posttest method confirmed its reputed…

The presently viewed role and utility of measures of instructional sensitivity are summarized. A case is made that the rationale for the assessment of instructional sensitivity can be applied to all achievement tests and should not be restricted to criterion-referenced mastery tests. (Author/BW)