What follows is a practical guide for establishing the validity of a survey for research purposes. The motivation for providing this guide is our observation that researchers, not necessarily being survey researchers per se, but wanting to use a survey method, lack a concise resource on validity. There is far more to know about surveys and survey…

Analyzing heterogeneous treatment effects (HTEs) plays a crucial role in understanding the impacts of educational interventions. A standard practice for HTE analysis is to examine interactions between treatment status and preintervention participant characteristics, such as pretest scores, to identify how different groups respond to treatment.…

Analyzing heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE) plays a crucial role in understanding the impacts of educational interventions. A standard practice for HTE analysis is to examine interactions between treatment status and pre-intervention participant characteristics, such as pretest scores, to identify how different groups respond to treatment.…

The development of questionnaires, surveys and psychometric scales is an iterative research process that includes a number of carefully planned stages. Pretesting is a method of checking that questions work as intended and are understood by those individuals who are likely to respond to them. However, detailed reports of appropriate methods to…

This study discusses the need, development, and validation of the Innovation Test Instrument (ITI). This article outlines how the researchers identified the content domain of the assessment and created test items. Then, it describes initial validation testing of the instrument. The findings suggest that the ITI is a good first step in creating an…

Maintaining score interchangeability and scale consistency is crucial for any testing programs that administer multiple forms across years. The use of a multiple linking design, which involves equating a new form to multiple old forms and averaging the conversions, has been proposed to control scale drift. However, the use of multiple linking…

With the need for larger and larger banks of items to support adaptive testing and to meet security concerns, large-scale item generation is a requirement for many certification and licensure programs. As part of the mass production of items, it is critical that the difficulty and the discrimination of the items be known without the need for…

This paper addresses the use of computer-based testing in distance education, based on the experience of Universitas Terbuka (UT), Indonesia. Computer-based testing has been developed at UT for reasons of meeting the specific needs of distance students as the following: (1) students' inability to sit for the scheduled test; (2) conflicting test…

Background: All national curriculum tests in England are pre-tested as part of the development process. Differences in pupil performance between pre-test and live test are consistently found. This difference has been termed the pre-test effect. Understanding the pre-test effect is essential in the test development and selection processes and in…

This study evaluated the practical benefit, if any, of using collateral information for one item type when statistically analyzing pretest items of some other item type. The criterion for evaluation of pretest item calibration accuracy was the reduction achieved by the use of collateral information in the number of test takers that must be…

In this study, the effect of appended pretesting was evaluated with regard to item statistics and examinee scores for groups of items that were pretested as part of a large-scale operational testing program. In appended pretesting, items are administered in a separately timed section at the end of an operational test battery. Two evaluations were…

This book discusses tricks for answering questions on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The tricks are based on an analysis of 12 editions of the LSAT which have been made public pursuant to New York's Truth in Testing Law. Sample LSAT questions published by the Law School Admission Council are referenced to exemplify the tricks' applications…

This book discusses tricks for answering questions on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). The tricks are based on an analysis of 20 editions of the GMAT which have been made public pursuant to New York's Truth in Testing Law. Sample GMAT questions published by the Graduate Management Admission Council are referenced to exemplify the…

The problem of measuring growth across the target grade and, typically, the two adjacent grades, concerns most developers of standardized, norm-referenced achievement tests, particularly at the item selection stage. Opinion is divided on whether to retain or drop items that do not get easier from grade to grade. The controversy has focused on…

This Technical Report provides descriptions and summary data that assist measurement specialists in assessing the procedures used in developing New Jersey's High School Proficiency Test (HSPT), the technical qualities of the tests, and the statewide results obtained from its use. The data summarized in this report were collected during the various…