Rescoring of Center for Occupational and Professional Assessment objective-referenced tests is decided largely by content experts selected by client organizations. A few of the test items, statistically flagged for review, are not rescored. Some of this incongruence could be due to the use of the biserial correlation (r-biserial) as an…

This procedures manual for the North Carolina Test Development Program details the tasks involved in test development. The basic steps are described in an introductory section; they are (1) to specify the institutional objectives of the curriculum and ensure their instructional validity; and (2) to specify the characteristics, such as the purpose…

A solution to reduce the likelihood of one examinee copying another's answers on large scale tests that require all examinees to answer the same set of questions is to use multiple test forms that differ in terms of item ordering. This study was conducted to determine whether varying the sequence in which blocks of items were presented to…

This study was designed to illustrate the use of the Rasch model procedure to equate the Dade County Compensatory Education Skills Test (DCCEST) to the State Student Assessment Test (SSAT) for both mathematics skills and communications skills. The SSAT was a test developed by the Florida State Department of Education to measure students' level of…

Data gathered from large-scale assessments in the Ontario Assessment Instrument Pool (OAIP) are examined. Implications for science instruction are to be found at the item level; the items should not involve more than two or three steps if the responses are to be informative. Items are collected and linked to provincial curriculum guidelines. These…

This paper describes the development of the Basic Educational Skills Test (BEST) in the Austin Independent School District. In 1982 future options for the AISD minimum competency program, which requires all students to meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics before graduation, were evaluated against legal and local criteria. It…

This document contains the codebooks and data record layouts for the 1985-86 Public-Use Data Tapes, Version 1.0. The Public-Use data tapes are created by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to provide outside researchers access to NAEP data. This book provides coded data collected on and from third graders and 9-year-olds via…

Before an item bank is constructed, several curriculum and testing considerations should be addressed. Such issues include the number of students enrolled in the selected subject area; number of desired objectives and items per objective; method of storing the items; and how and when to train how many teachers in item writing. The following steps…

The operational preparations for the Dutch national assessment program in education started in 1986. The program's aim is to periodically describe the contents of the curriculum in use and the attainment of 8-year-old and 11-year-old students on a national basis by means of surveys. In this paper some of the guiding principles in instrument…

Tests of spatial ability were analyzed for their analog (visuospatial) and nonanalog (verbal reasoning) components, using factor analyses of items and test scores. The self-selected sample consisted of over 2000 clients (average age about 26 or 27) employing the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation's aptitude evaluation services in 12 metropolitan…

This research, conducted for California State Department of Education, is one component of a feasibility study focusing on ways to make the testing process more efficient by application of multi-purpose tests (MPT). MPT are designed, administered and scored to serve more than one purpose and to consolidate and unify testing programs as a partial…

This paper presents the dual approach to item bias detection employed in the Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP). Using instructional objectives mandated by the Maryland State Board of Education, the MFTP develops two levels of the Maryland Functional Reading Test (MFRT) and the Maryland Functional Mathematics Tests (MFMT). These…

A technical advisory committee assisted the Alabama State Department of Education in establishing passing scores and equating test forms of the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE). The committee examined four methods of setting cutting scores: (1) Jensen's theoretical method--probability theory is used to set standards that are…

The relationship between item omission and item position on criterion-referenced tests in the Texas state assessment program is examined. Item statistics from the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) and Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) mathematics and reading tests from 1983 through 1985 are examined for three ethnic…