Validity evidence based on test content is critical to meaningful interpretation of test scores. Within high-stakes testing and accountability frameworks, content-related validity evidence is typically gathered via alignment studies, with panels of experts providing qualitative judgments on the degree to which test items align with the…

In using the Rasch model to improve the quality of an instrument, analysis purports to determine if the sample collaborates well with the items in the instrument such that the results are measuring a single underlying variable. The relevant properties of Rasch analysis are reliability and validity which are key indicators of the quality of a…

Assessment engineering is a new way to design and implement scalable, sustainable and ideally lower-cost solutions to the complexities of designing and developing tests. It represents a merger of sorts between cognitive task modeling and engineering design principles--a merger that requires some new thinking about the nature of score scales, item…

This article discusses the development of a scale informed by the construct of emotional intelligence designed to measure student development outcomes identified as co-curricular goals. Supervisors, staff, and coaches provided firsthand accounts of student development outcomes at a small, private, liberal arts work college, generating data on…

Since elementary school counselors frequently provide or interpret achievement test scores for academic placement decisions, they must be vigilant for invalid data. Standardized norm-referenced achievement tests can underestimate achievement or potential of low-income black children because of different learning styles and test bias. Recent…