In 2005 the Hungarian school-leaving examination system underwent a significant transformation. In case of history the aim was to give a greater role to the development of students' knowledge acquisition and source analysis skills by more focusing on students' work with historical sources in classes. However, it was clear that the achievement of…

With support from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), a community of biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) scientist-educators has developed and administered an assessment instrument designed to evaluate student competence across four core concept and skill areas fundamental to BMB. The four areas encompass…

Establishing cut scores using the Angoff method requires panelists to evaluate every item on a test and make a probability judgment. This can be time-consuming when there are large numbers of items on the test. Previous research using resampling studies suggest that it is possible to recommend stable Angoff-based cut score estimates using a…

The consequences associated with the uses and interpretations of scores for many credentialing testing programs have important implications for a range of stakeholders. Within licensure settings specifically, results from examination programs are often one of the final steps in the process of assessing whether individuals will be allowed to enter…

This study examined students' competencies in engineering education at the university level. First, we developed a competency model in one specific field of engineering: process dynamics and control. Then, the theoretical model was used as a frame to construct test items to measure students' competencies comprehensively. In the empirical…

The ability to purposefully access, reflect, and use evidence from educational research (Educational Research Literacy) is expected of future professionals in educational practice. Based on the presented conceptual framework, a test instrument was developed to assess the different competency aspects: Information Literacy, Statistical Literacy, and…

Both testlet design and hierarchical latent traits are fairly common in educational and psychological measurements. This study aimed to develop a new class of higher order testlet response models that consider both local item dependence within testlets and a hierarchy of latent traits. Due to high dimensionality, the authors adopted the Bayesian…

Nurses' ability to think critically in clinical situations cannot be assessed by multiple-choice tests. Context-dependent test items that assess critical thinking are useful for orientation of new staff, competency testing, and clinical staff development. (SK)

Outlines a method for constructing minimum competency tests that are legitimate, answerable, and useful. At the heart of such tests is an item bank that is open to all to view. (Author/IRT)

Reviews some of the characteristics of the New York state social studies testing program and describes how new questions are developed for the test. (JDH)

This paper discusses how certain recent technical advances might be extended to examine proficiency tests which are conceptualized as representing a variety of skills with one or more items per skill. In contrast to previous analyses, errors in the item level are included. (Author/BW)

Four considerations that enhance the instructional importance of tests are content match, use of feedback, a flagging function, and the increasing tendency to attach sanctions and rewards to standardized test results. These sanctions are apt to force greater attention to the other three characteristics, strengthening the links between instruction…

An ignored aspect of standard setting, namely the possibility that Angoff or Nedelsky judges specify inconsistent probabilities (e.g., low probabilities for easy items but large probabilities for hard items) is explored. A latent trait method is proposed to estimate such misspecifications, and an index of consistency is defined. (Author/PN)

Results from the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) indicate that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Literacy Development (ELD) students have comparatively low success and high deferral rates. This study examined the 2002 and 2003 OSSLT test performances of ESL/ELD and non-ESL/ELD students in order to identify and…

The influence of judges' knowledge on standard setting for competency tests was studied with 17 judges who took an economics teacher certification test while setting competency standards using the Angoff procedure. Judges tended to set higher standards for items they answered correctly and lower standards for items they answered incorrectly. (SLD)