The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only continuing and nationally representative measure of trends in academic achievement of U.S. elementary and secondary school students in various subjects. For more than four decades, NAEP assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S.…

The purposes of the present study were to ascertain whether or not two particular formatting characteristics influenced seventh grade student performance on math tests. One research question focused on the effects of decimal positioning in multiple choice options for computational items. In a second question, labeling format was compared with…

This study investigated the effect of diagram formats on performance on geometry items in order to determine whether certain examinees are affected by different item formats and whether such differences arise from the different intellectual demands made by these formats. Thirty-two experimental, multiple-choice geometry items were administered in…