Sixteen item statistics recommended for use in the development of criterion-referenced tests were evaluated. There were two major criteria: (1) practicability in terms of ease of computation and interpretation and (2) meaningfulness in the context of the development process. Most of the statistics were based on a comparison of performance changes (pretest-posttest) or differences (uninstructed-instructed) between criterion groups. Descriptions and critiques of the difficulty, discrimination, and homogeneity indices are presented in the form of a "consumers" guide." It was found that the relatively complex indices offered few if any advantages over the ones that were manually calculable and easily interpretable. (Author)