For many purposes, it is useful to collect a corpus of texts all produced to the same stimulus, whether to measure performance (as on a test) or to test hypotheses about population differences. This paper examines several methods for measuring similarities in phrasing and content and demonstrates that these methods can be used to identify…

In this article, the authors review the Clinical Assessment of Depression (CAD), a 50-item self-report measure of depressive symptoms designed for children, adolescents, adults, and elderly adults from 8 to 79 years of age. Purporting to be sensitive to depressive symptomatology across the lifespan, the test items were written to reflect the…

Students in an introductory psychology course took a quiz a week over each textbook chapter, followed by a cumulative final exam. Students missing a quiz in class could make up a quiz at any time during the semester, and answers to quiz items were available to students prior to the cumulative final exam. The cumulative final exam consisted of half…

Featuring a new spiral binding, the FCCERS-R is a thorough revision of the widely used program quality assessment instrument, "The Family Day Care Rating Scale." Designed for use in family child care programs, it is suitable for programs serving children from infancy through school-age. Following extensive input from users of the…

The purpose of this document is to provide background information that will be useful in interpreting the 2007 results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) by comparing its design, features, framework, and items with those of the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress and another international assessment…

In this article, the author reviews the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Four Edition Spanish (WISC-IV Spanish), an individually administered measure of intelligence for Spanish-speaking children who are English language learners and relatively new to American culture. The WISC-IV Spanish, like its English counterpart, the WISC-IV, is…

Test specifications dictate the kind of content that should be included on each form of an examination, and the relative weight that each content domain should contribute to the determination of examinees' test scores by specifying the proportion of items to be included in each content area. This paper addresses a step in the development of…

The effects of anchor test characteristics in the accuracy and precision of test equating in the "common items, nonequivalent groups design" were studied. The study also considered the effects of nonparallel based and new forms on the equating solution, and it investigated the effects of differential weighting on the success of equating…

The Reading Framework for the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) contains the rationale for the aspects of reading assessed in 1992 and criteria for development of the assessment. Developed through a national consensus process as a part of an effort to move assessment forward, the framework presented in the booklet is more…

The multistage alpha-stratified computerized adaptive testing (CAT) design advocated a new philosophy of pool management and item selection using low discriminating items first. It has been demonstrated through simulation studies to be effective both in reducing item overlap rate and enhancing pool utilization with certain pool types. Based on…

This study investigated whether equating accuracy improves with an anchor test that is more representative of its corresponding total test and whether such content effect depends on the particular equating method used. Scoring outcomes of a professional examination for a medical specialty were used. A total of 1,092 examinees took one form, and…

Contends that different ethical issues arise according to how the construct of writing is defined for assessment purposes. Explains that most formal assessments assume a pragmatic, functional definition of second-language writing in which an examinee's text production is judged normatively in respect to conventions. Discusses efforts to develop…

Reviews the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test. Notes that the test may be used as an informal diagnostic instrument, an evaluation tool for instructional effectiveness, or as material for teaching critical thinking. (RS)

This simulation investigated two procedures that reduce differences between paper-and-pencil testing and computerized adaptive testing (CAT) by making CAT content sensitive. Results indicate that the price in terms of additional test items of using constrained CAT for content balancing is much smaller than that of using testlets. (SLD)

Discusses the advantages of using multiple choice questions, highlighting the flexibility of using different variations of questions. Item writing guidelines include information on content, sensitivity, difficulty, irrelevant sources of difficulty, order, misleads, avoidance of clues, and exercises in the application of guidelines. (JKP)