The study described in this paper is part of an effort to improve understanding of the science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It involved the coding of all the items in the 1996 NAEP science assessments, which included 45 blocks (15 each for grades 4, 8, and 12) and over 500 items. Each of the approximately…

This manual explains how to construct a questionnaire. It is intended for the novice researcher who has little experience in questionnaire construction. The first seven chapters discuss the following seven stages in questionnaire development: (1) establishing the guiding questions; (2) operationalizing and clarifying the guiding questions; (3)…

This study examines the linguistic features of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test items and investigates the significance of language-related variables for NAEP's assessment in the content area of mathematics. The continuing increase in the number of language minority students in classrooms nationwide has…

This study aims to evaluate the degree to which the achievement level descriptions adopted by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) for the 1992 assessment in mathematics accurately represent what students at a given achievement level can do. NAGB descriptions of the levels were used to form lists of statements about what students at a…

To help increase the understanding of sources of difficulty in test items, a study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of various aspects of prose complexity on the difficulty of achievement test items. The items of interest were those that presented a verbal stimulus followed by a question about the stimulus and a standard set of…

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT), while well-grounded in psychometric theory, has had few large-scale applications for high-stakes, secure tests in the past. This is now changing as the cost of computing has declined rapidly. As is always true where theory is translated into practice, many practical issues arise. This paper discusses a number…

This research summarizes differential item functioning (DIF) results for student produced response (SPR) items, a nonmultiple-choice mathematical item type in the Scholastic Aptitude Test I (SAT I). DIF data from 4 field trial pretest administrations (620 SPR items) and 10 final forms (100 SPR items with samples ranging from about 58,000 to over…

In this study some alternative item selection criteria for adaptive testing are proposed. These criteria take into account the uncertainty of the ability estimates. A general weighted information criterion is suggested of which the usual maximum information criterion and the suggested alternative criteria are special cases. A simulation study was…

Three methods for the estimation of the reliability of single dichotomous items are discussed. All methods are based on the assumptions of nondecreasing and nonintersecting item response functions and the Mokken model of double monotonicity. Based on analytical and Monte Carlo studies, it is concluded that one method is superior to the other two…

In this digest a rationale is given for using open-ended questions in the assessment of student achievement, the use of open-ended questions in reading is discussed, and some implications for the classroom are outlined. Research has helped shift the focus from learning as content knowledge per se to learning as the ability to use and interpret…

This document contains teacher and student materials for teaching entrepreneurship as part of a secondary, postsecondary, or adult curriculum. The materials are based on the curriculum alignment concept of first stating the objectives, developing instructional strategies for teaching to those objectives, and assessing to those same objectives.…

This instructor's manual contains seven units for a course to prepare students to pass the Wisconsin Commercial Driver's License test. The units cover the following: (1) introduction (rules and laws); (2) vehicle inspection; (3) transporting cargo safely; (4) transporting passengers; (5) air brakes; (6) combination vehicles; and (7) introduction…

A study was designed to provide recommendations regarding the use of the achievement levels set in 1992 for reporting National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading results in 1994 and in future NAEP reading assessments. Two procedures were used: the Item Difficulty Categorization (IDC) procedure involved an evaluation of the…

The concept of a user-specified validity sector is discussed. The idea of the validity sector combines the work of M. D. Reckase (1986) and R. Shealy and W. Stout (1991). Reckase developed a methodology to represent an item in a multidimensional latent space as a vector. Item vectors are computed using multidimensional item response theory item…

Equating tests from different calibrations under item response theory (IRT) requires calculation of the slope and intercept of the appropriate linear transformation. Two methods have been proposed recently for equating graded response items under IRT, a test characteristic curve method and a minimum chi-square method. These two methods are…