Several methods of assessing test item bias are described, and the concept of fair use of tests is examined. A test item is biased if individuals of equal ability have different probabilities of attaining the item correct. The following seven general procedures used to examine test items for bias are summarized and discussed: (1) analysis of…

Two studies investigate whether the placement and/or wording (either positively or negatively) of diagnostic rating scale items influenced student responses to the global items in the evaluation of a course of instruction. The Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) developed at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign was used to…

These performance tests for the area of cosmetology consist of a sampling technique (domain referenced tests) which covers all the possible performance situations. When used in total, they may also serve as a comprehensive test. Introductory materials discuss domain referenced testing, determining the domains, and developing performance testing…

The sampling of test items found within the Science portion of selected standardized achievement test batteries is examined. The lack of sensitivity of such items to the curriculum changes often attempted in Earth Science is demonstrated. The following five standardized achievement test batteries commonly administered to pupils in grades 7-9 were…

A number of examples are presented to illustrate a common flaw in the published research on learning, memory, and instruction. Experimental subjects--often college students--have certain expectations about the problems they will be asked to solve and about the questions that will appear on reading comprehension or recall tests; these expectations…

Number right and elimination scores were analyzed on a 48-item college level mathematics test that was assembled from pretest data in three forms by varying the item orderings: easy-hard, uniform, or random. Half of the forms contained information explaining the item arrangement and suggesting strategies for taking the test. Several anxiety…

This exercise set provides access to the 134 items released from the first National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment conducted in 1970-71 with students aged 9, 13, and 17. The exercises are intended for use by state and local education agencies who may want to build their own assessment instruments. An overview of the…

Using estimates of item ease and item discrimination, procedures are provided for computing estimates of the reliability and percentage of failing scores for tests assembled from these items. Two assumptions are made: that the average item coefficient will be approximately equal to the average of the estimated coefficients and that the score…

Items from a widely used standardized reading achievement test were rated by trained judges according to the degree to which they required an understanding of hierarchical classification. Two subtests were constructed from subsets of items that were identified by their extreme ratings. Subtest A was judged to require classification operations from…

The Classroom Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS) was developed to provide school psychologists and educators with a measure of learning-related classroom behaviors of elementary school students. The initial item pool consisted of 100 behavioral statements reflecting learning-related behaviors such as attention and persistence. These behaviors were…

The development of the communicative competence test for college business majors described in this paper consisted of three phases. The first phase identified as desirable the following communication behaviors: planning, logic, perception, communication without fear or anxiety, listening, oral communication, conference leadership, and nonverbal…

The literature suggests a "concrete" to "abstract" hierarchy in concept acquisition. However, typical tests do not reflect this hierarchy. Studies have been reported in which an "abstract" option for an item was included in with a "concrete" option and with distractors. This procedure assumes that "abstract" and "concrete" behavior is on a common…

In order to determine if multiple choice spelling tests are as effective as handwritten tests, 265 college freshmen were tested on the same spelling words by traditional oral dictation and then by five-option multiple choice questions. Results were compared to examine the efficacy of multiple choice testing. Of a possible 20 points, the mean score…

Because criterion referenced measurement is a relatively new approach to testing, systematic guidelines for constructing criterion referenced tests (CRTs) have not yet been developed. A number of questions and issues face the test developer who wishes to provide a test that will be helpful in a particular decision-making situation. There are three…

Performance on high and low level objective test items were compared for two groups of business writing students. Students in individualized classes with one teacher for 50 students did as well on high level tasks as did students in traditional classes with one teacher for 25 students. (Author/GDC)