Abilities in scientific thinking and reasoning have been emphasized as core areas of initiatives, such as the Next Generation Science Standards or the College Board Standards for College Success in Science, which focus on the skills the future will demand of today's students. Although there is rich literature on studies of how these abilities…

Multiple-choice questions are an important part of large-scale summative assessments, such as the advanced placement (AP) chemistry exam. However, past AP chemistry exam items often lacked the ability to test conceptual understanding and higher-order cognitive skills. The redesigned AP chemistry exam shows a distinctive shift in item types toward…

Intervention integrity or adherence describes qualities of carrying out an intervention plan and in research is fundamentally linked to experimental validity questions addressed by measurement of independent and dependent variables. Integrity has been well described in conceptual writing but has been a continuing thorny subject in research and…

Quantitative literacy has been recognized as an important skill in the higher education and workforce communities, focusing on problem solving, reasoning, and real-world application. As a result, there is a need by various stakeholders in higher education and workforce communities to evaluate whether college students receive sufficient training on…

The influence of metacognition on learning and problem solving has been demonstrated, and it is becoming increasingly clear that promoting metacognitive activity can produce substantial improvements in problem solving and learning in chemistry. This article reports the development and validation of an instrument designed to evaluate students'…

Discusses the generalizability of critical thinking and the disposition to think critically. Argues that verbal reports of examinees' thinking on multiple-choice tests can explain the reasoning behind their answers and, thus, can be used to assess the inability to make credibility judgments. (FMW)

The Bookmark standard-setting procedure was developed to address the perceived problems with the most popular method for setting cut-scores: the Angoff procedure (Angoff, 1971). The purposes of this article are to review the Bookmark procedure and evaluate it in terms of Berk's (1986) criteria for evaluating cut-score setting methods. The…

In this article, the authors explain how curriculum-based measurement (CBM) differs from other forms of classroom-based assessment. The development of CBM is traced from computation to concepts and applications to real-life problem solving, with examples of the assessments and illustrations of research to document technical features and utility…

Even in an educational tests and measurements classroom it is possible to stimulate student creativity and divergent thinking. Examples of projects and test constructions are given to provide food for thought for the creative teacher. (JN)

This project at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (Fort Worth) evaluated the use of an artificial-intelligence-derived measure, "Knowledge-Based Inference Tool" (KBIT), as the basis for assessing medical students' diagnostic capabilities and designing instruction to improve diagnostic skills. The instrument was designed to…

Research activities underway as part of the Air Force's Learning Abilities Measurement Program (LAMP) are described. A major objective of the program is to devise new models of the nature and organization of human abilities, that could be applied to improve personnel selection and classification systems. The activities of the project have been…

The purpose of this project was to construct a valid and reliable noncurriculum specific measure of integrated science process skills intended for use with middle school students. The major efforts in test development were focused on the refinements and modifications of the set of objectives and test items assessed by the existing Middle Grades…

This paper: (1) reviews the development and implementation of a test designed to assess the competencies of public high school students in Atlanta, Georgia, preceding their graduation; and (2) presents the results of indicator cluster correlations between the new "Basic Skills Tests" and other reading and mathematics basal tests…

According to the most recent National Adult Literacy Survey, nearly half of Illinois adults lack sufficient reading proficiency to ensure job success and advancement in 21st century workplaces. The Test of Adult Basic Education is currently used as a pretest/posttest in Illinois' existing adult basic education, adult secondary education, and…