Psychometric work with young children faces the particular challenge that children's attention spans are relatively short, and therefore, shorter assessments are required while retaining comprehensive coverage. This article reports on three empirical studies that encompass the development and validation of the research-based early mathematics…

Standardized concept inventories (CIs) have been widely used in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education for assessment of student learning. In practice, there have been concerns regarding the length of the test and possible test-retest memory effect. To address these issues, a recent study developed a method to split a CI into…

Because it generally took over an hour to administer the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA), a shorter but comparable version of the test was developed. The original test was designed to quantify aphasic patients' ability level on common communicative tasks and consisted of 18 ten-item subtests. Each item resulted in a proficiency rating,…

Four main approaches to customized testing are described, and their resulting scores' valid uses and interpretations are discussed. Customized testing can yield valid normative and curriculum-specific information, although cautious application is needed to avoid misleading inferences about student achievement. (SLD)

To examine the validity of short forms of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), the WISC-R was first administered to 106 hospitalized psychiatric patients, aged 8-16. No subjects had a primary diagnosis of mental retardation or learning disability, and one-third were receiving psychotropic medication. WISC-R IQ scores…