This paper presents research and provides a method to ensure that parallel assessments, that are generated from a large test-item database, maintain equitable difficulty and content coverage each time the assessment is presented. To maintain fairness and validity it is important that all instances of an assessment, that is intended to test the…

There is an increased demand on nursing faculty to provide quality teaching and assessment. Nursing faculty are required to ensure accurate assessment of learning through testing and outcome measurement that are critical elements of the evaluation process. Likewise, nursing faculty should implement a logical evaluation system. However, the…

This article presents a review of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language--Second Edition (CASL-2), in which reliability, utility, and validity are analyzed and discussed. Some limited recommendations for practice are made based on a review of the information provided by the publisher for clinicians.

Assessment refers to a broad array of approaches for measuring or evaluating a person's (or group of persons') skills, behaviors, dispositions, or other attributes. Assessments range from standardized tests used in admissions, employee selection, licensure examinations, and domestic and international largescale assessments of cognitive and…

Advancement of testing of mathematical problem-solving skills calls for open-ended, realistic tasks particularly susceptible to bias, compromising the score validity and fairness of tests. Informed by universal design principles, this study framed 360 prototype items developed for the "Problem-solving Measures Grades 6-8 Computer Adaptive…

The implicit sociocultural functioning of the "content" of high-stakes English language proficiency tests is a rarely-explored concern in language assessment. This study attempts to bring critical views of language testing and critical discourse studies together to examine the content of IELTS preparation materials in search of topics…

The "TOEFL® Essentials"™ test is a new English language proficiency test in the "TOEFL"® family of assessments. It measures foundational language skills and communication abilities in academic and general (daily life) contexts. The test covers the four language skills of reading, listening, writing, and speaking and is intended…

This article reviews the history of the measure of socio-economic status in PISA and identifies theoretical underpinnings of the index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS). It then highlights multiple changes in the instruments and scaling methods used by PISA over time, and suggests ways of resolving the tensions behind some of these…

This study examined the content alignment between an English as a foreign language skills curriculum and a provincial language test in China. When there is misalignment in the content between the standards of a curriculum and a test, conclusions about student abilities and teaching effectiveness can be questioned. To examine this, three categories…

The test view is on the Duolingo English Test (DET), an alternative online English proficiency test with a machine-driven characteristic. The review covers essential information of the DET such as test purpose, usage, score-mapping with CEFR scale, price, and publisher. Meanwhile, the test usefulness is discussed with focuses on reliability,…

In response to COVID-19, universities worldwide experienced drastic and sudden changes including the need to shift to online teaching and assessment. Following previous research suggesting that individual differences in typing skills could influence text quantity and quality, we investigated whether university students' typing speed is related to…

This study explored the impact of homogeneity of answer choices on item difficulty and discrimination. Twenty-two matched pairs of elementary and secondary mathematics items were administered to randomly equivalent samples of students. Each item pair comparison was treated as a separate study with the set of effect sizes analyzed using…

This study addresses how Chinese learners of English as a second language (L2) perceive conversations in English materials as compared to speakers of English as a first language (L1). Data were collected through questionnaires completed by 48 participants (28 L2 English learners in China and 20 L1 English speakers in the UK), eliciting evaluations…

The development of students' higher order learning is a critical component of education. For decades, educators and scientists have engaged in an ongoing debate about whether higher order learning can only be enhanced by building a base of factual knowledge (analogous to Bloom's taxonomy) or whether higher order learning can be enhanced directly…

A great deal has been written on the topic of test validity. Guiding our work at ACT are "The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (2014), which outlines best practices in test development and validation. As ACT transitions from an assessment company to a learning, measurement, and navigation organization, a framework for…