This article proposes that sampling design effects have potentially huge unrecognized impacts on the results reported by large-scale district and state assessments in the United States. When design effects are unrecognized and unaccounted for they lead to underestimating the sampling error in item and test statistics. Underestimating the sampling…

Fifth-grade students (n=154) were given the Group Embedded Figures Test. Distribution characteristics and sex differences were examined. Earlier norms developed for adult samples are substantially different from those of a sample of children. The norms presented here provide a guide for identification of field dependence in children. (Author)

Technical considerations associated with item selection and reliability assessment are considered in relation to criterion-referenced tests constructed to provide group information. The purpose is to emphasize test building and the evaluation of test scores in program evaluation studies. It is stressed that an evaluator employ a performance or…

The National Education Association's Task Force on Testing has stated its opinion that standardized tests are overused. The task force suggests that the application of sampling techniques and a variety of alternatives to current testing practices would accomplish the same purposes. Representatives of the testing industry have indicated that the…

Latent trait model calibration procedures were used on data obtained from a group testing program. The one-parameter model of Wright and Panchapakesan and the three-parameter logistic model of Wingersky, Wood, and Lord were selected for comparison. These models and their corresponding estimation procedures were compared, using actual and simulated…