The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is a statewide assessment system that embodies Nebraska's holistic view of students and helps them prepare for success in postsecondary education, career, and civic life. It uses multiple measures throughout the year to provide educators and decision-makers at all levels with the insights…

Background: The issue of science is seldom brought into focus because of the way developing assessments of students' multiple text reading comprehension. Objectives: This study tested the sequential mediation model of scientific multi-text reading comprehension (SMTRC) by means of structural equation modelling (SEM), and aimed to advance the…

Standard setting is a method used to set cut scores on large-scale assessments. One of the most popular standard setting methods is the Bookmark method. In the Bookmark method, panelists are asked to envision a response probability (RP) criterion and move through a booklet of ordered items based on a RP criterion. This study investigates whether…

Item mappings are widely used in educational assessment for applications such as test administration (through test form assembly and computer assisted testing) and for criterion-referenced (CR) interpretation of test scores or scale anchoring. Item mappings are also used to construct ordered item booklets in the CTB/McGraw Hill Bookmark standard…

By noting that a Rasch or two parameter logistic (2PL) item belongs to the exponential family of random variables and that the probability density function (pdf) of the correct response (X=1) and the incorrect response (X=0) are symmetric with respect to the vertical line at the item location, it is shown that the conjugate prior for ability is…

This study addressed what standard-setting panelists think about when they make item performance estimates for a barely proficient student. This study extended previous studies by considering the factors that influenced panelists' decisions in an Angoff (1971)-based standard-setting study as a function of their item performance estimates.…

To address the issues associated with testing standards, sets of context-setting variables and technical matters associated with standard-setting are presented to assist groups or committees desiring to set standards in a systematic way. (Author/CM)

The modified caution index's use in identifying judges whose patterns of item judgment appear aberrant when compared with the pattern produced by the entire group (N=158) of judges was studied. Effects on test standards and passing rates of removing test standards of these judges were also assessed. (TJH)

This paper describes major concepts related to item analysis for criterion-referenced tests including validity, reliability, item difficulty, and item discrimination, particularly in relation to criterion-referenced tests. The paper discussed how these concepts can be used to revise and improve items and listed suggestions regarding general…

A new standard setting approach is introduced, called the cognitive components approach. Like the Angoff method, the cognitive components method generates minimum pass levels (MPLs) for each item. In both approaches, the item MPLs are summed for each judge, then averaged across judges to yield the standard. In the cognitive components approach,…

An experiment was designed that varied cutting score procedures, instructions, and types of judges in order to address the following questions concerning the Real Estate Licensing Examination: (1) Will the cutting score levels produced by groups of judges from differing backgrounds (academicians vs. practitioners vs. lawyers) using the same method…

Based on the standard setting procedures or the American Board of Preventive Medicine for their Core Test, this article describes how Rasch measurement can facilitate using test content judgments in setting a standard. Rasch measurement can then be used to evaluate and improve the precision of the standard and to hold it constant across time.…

A latent trait method is presented to investigate the possibility that Angoff or Nedelsky judges specify inconsistent probabilities in standard setting techniques for objectives-based instructional programs. It is suggested that judges frequently specify a low probability of success for an easy item but a large probability for a hard item. The…

The cognitive components standard setting method, recently introduced by D. McGinty and J. Neel (1996), asks judges to specify minimum levels of performance not for the test items, but for smaller portions of items, the component skills and concepts required to answer each item correctly. Items are decomposed into these components before judges…

Minimum competency cut-off scores on a statistics exam were estimated under four conditions: the Angoff judging method with item data (n=20), and without data available (n=19); and the Modified Angoff method with (n=19), and without (n=19) item data available to judges. The Angoff method required free response percentage estimates (0-100) percent,…