THE VALIDITY OF AN EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST DEPENDS UPON THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SPECIFIED EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THESE OBJECTIVES ARE MEASURED BY THE EVALUATION INSTRUMENT. THIS STUDY IS DESIGNED TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF STATISTICAL ITEM SELECTION ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE FINAL EVALUATION INSTRUMENT AS COMPARED WITH…

There are usually many testing activities going on in a school, with different tests serving different purposes, thus organization and planning are key in creating an efficient system in assessing the most important educational objectives. In the ideal case, an assessment system will be able to inform on student learning, instruction and…

Objective-based assessment, known as criterion referenced testing, relies on the development of test items related directly to instructional objectives and incorporated into instruments for which predetermined criterion standards have been set. This bibliography attempts to provide in a somewhat systematic fashion, selected references concerning…

Standard and experimental forms of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundations Analytical Reasoning test were administered to 1,496 clients of the Foundation (persons seeking information about aptitude for educational and career decisions). The objectives were to develop a new form of the test and to better understand what makes some items more…

Procedures which are used by Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, Inc., in developing achievement tests are described; these steps are suggested to be typical of major test publishers. A curricular analysis of fifth grade mathematics textbooks is presented, to illustrate the process which determines which skills and objectives are tested. The…

This guide is organized into five chapters; (1) an approach to testing--decisions made from test results, types of achievement tests, types and levels of objectives, and test validity, reliability, and practicality; (2) classroom test construction--planning, item banks, item writing, assembly, administration, and scoring; (3) test analysis-item…

Principles and concepts of measurement and evaluation are organized to aid teachers and students of education in developing an understanding of the issues in educational evaluation and some command of its procedures. Chapter headings are: Issues in Educational Evaluation; Foundations of Evaluation; The Treatment of Empirical Data; Instructional…

This manual outlines the rationale for using the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) approach and suggests specific guidelines for test developers to use in constructing test items. Methods for assessing the adequacy of a CRT are also provided. (Author/RC)

This material provides a discussion of the construction and analysis of tests prepared for classroom use by teachers. The initial discussion is concerned with the purposes of evaluation and the specification of objectives. This is followed by an examination of theoretical and practical considerations in planning a test. The material on test item…

Pilot, field, and final tests in listening and in speaking knowledge, skills, and attitudes for Alberta (Canada) students in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 were constructed, using the following steps: (1) selection and validation of high-priority measurable objectives; (2) review of existing tests and related literature; (3) pilot test construction,…

Three approaches to the construction of achievement tests are compared: construct, operational, and empirical. The construct approach is based upon classical test theory and measures an abstract representation of the instructional objectives. The operational approach specifies instructional intent through instructional objectives, facet design,…

The results are presented of the validation study of reading and mathematics criterion referenced tests, administered to South Carolina students in grades 3, 6, and 8. This testing was mandated by state law to field test a competency based assessment program. The study was based on three activities: (1) test selection; (2) content validation; and…