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…

Three pyramidal adaptive tests and a conventional peaked test were constructed and administered by computer to two groups of students enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses. Six methods of scoring pyramidal tests were evaluated with respect to score distributions, stability, and the degree of relationship among scoring methods and between…

In October 1981, the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Program introduced a new version of the General Test (GT) that differed from the previous version in three major ways. The GT was altered to: reduce the verbal measure's speededness and allow the addition of several quantitative items; delete two item types from the analytical measure; and…

A methodology for investigating the influence of correction-for-guessing directions and formula scoring on test performance was studied. Experts in the test content field used a judgmental item appraisal system to estimate the knowledge of the minimally competent candidate (MCC) and to predict those items that the MCC would omit on the test under…

On the basis of past research efforts to improve multiple-choice test information through differential weighting of responses to wrong answers (distractors), two statistical indices are developed. Each describes the properties of response distributions across the options of an item. Jaspen's polyserial generalization of the biserial correlation…

UNIACT, a major component of the American College Testing (ACT) Assessment Program, is one of the first interest inventories to employ a new technique for ensuring sex fairness in the reporting of scores. UNIACT was constructed with the goal that distributions of career options suggested to males and females would be similar. It is intended to…

The use of computers in areas of testing, selection, and placement processes for those in military services' training programs are viewed in this paper. Also discussed is a review of the motivational and theoretical foundation of admissible probability testing, the role of the computer in admissible probability testing, and the authors' experience…

The author surveys literature and practice, primarily in Great Britain and the United States, about multiple-choice testing, comments on criticisms, and defends the state of the art. Varous item types, item writing, test instructions and scoring formulas, item analysis, and test construction are discussed. An extensive bibliography is appended.…

Teachers have been in the era of accountability for some time. There is an increased demand for accountability and the use of non-referenced testing with President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" initiatives. However, there is a growing demand for less reliance on standardized tests. Admission decisions to colleges and universities are…

A number of strategies are described for adapting ability test items to individual differences in ability levels of testees. Each strategy consists of a different set of rules for selecting the sequence of test items to be administered to a given testee. Advantages and disadvantages of each strategy are discussed, and research issues unique to the…

A 15-stage pyramidal test and a 40-item two-stage test were constructed and administered by computer to 111 college undergraduates. The two-stage test was found to utilize a smaller proportion of its potential score range than the pyramidal test. Score distributions for both tests were positively skewed but not significantly different from the…

A monte carlo simulation was conducted to assess the effects in an adaptive testing strategy for test batteries of varying subtest order, subtest termination criterion, and variable versus fixed entry on the psychometric properties of an existent achievement test battery. Comparisons were made among conventionally administered tests and adaptive…

A case study of the Florida Teacher Certification Examination (FTCE) program was described to assist others launching the development of large scale item banks. FTCE has four subtests: Mathematics, Reading, Writing, and Professional Education. Rasch calibrated item banks have been developed for all subtests except Writing. The methods used to…

A computer simulation procedure was developed to reproduce the overall pattern of results obtained in the Educational Testing Service Growth Study. Then simulated data for seven sets of 10,000 to 15,000 cases were analyzed, and findings compared on the basis of correlations between estimated and true growth scores. Findings showed that growth was…