A mailed national survey of 500 randomly selected secondary school principals, which yielded 271 responses, used a single free-response item, 10 Likert-type items, and 36 paired-comparison items. The study was an attempt to determine the qualities that principals look for in selecting teacher candidates and whether there was a bias against the…

The success of applications of item response theory (IRT) depends upon the properties of the estimates of model parameters. Many theoretical properties of these estimates have been extensively studied. However, the properties of estimates obtained empirically from real data depend not only on the theoretical results, but also on the data and the…

L. V. DiBello, W. F. Stout, and L. A. Roussos (1993) have developed a new item response model, the Unified Model, which brings together the discrete, deterministic aspects of cognition favored by cognitive scientists, and the continuous, stochastic aspects of test response behavior that underlie item response theory (IRT). The Unified Model blends…

An alternative to the use of traditional composite scales in creating scales from survey items was developed, using feedback seeking as an example. It is proposed that much more information can be obtained through Rasch techniques about feedback-seeking behaviors related to teaching. Data are from the New Faculty Project involving tenure-track…

This digest offers tips on designing questionnaires and on avoiding common design errors. The following useful suggestions are offered: (1) keep the questionnaire brief and concise; (2) get feedback on the initial list of questions developed; (3) locate personal or confidential questions at the end of the questionnaire; (4) put categories in…

This report evaluates the degree to which the achievement level descriptions adopted by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) for the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment in mathematics accurately represent what students at a given achievement level can do. Three different analytical approaches were used in…

The work done by the Validation Panel that was commissioned by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (Joint Committee) to monitor the development of "The Program Evaluation Standards: How To Assess Evaluations of Educational Programs" is described, and its conclusions summarized. This report focuses on the…

This binder contains the questionnaires used by the Bureau of the Census to conduct the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the Teacher Followup Survey (TFS) for the National Center for Education Statistics. SASS is a mail survey of teachers, principals, and other administrators. TFS is a mail survey administered one year after the SASS to a…

Projects to develop an automated item banking and test development system have been undertaken on several occasions at the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory (AFHRL) throughout the past 10 years. Such a system permits the construction of tests in far less time and with a higher degree of accuracy than earlier test construction procedures. This…

Constructing a test of English-as-a-Foreign-Language reading comprehension that will accommodate the complete spectrum of performance from beginner to near native speaker can be problematic. Such a test is currently being developed at the Institute for Applied Language Studies at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). With only a few hundred…

The Assessment Clearinghouse of the Memphis (Tennessee) City Public Schools is a collection of performance-based instructional tasks that have been designed to address specific content standards at specific grade levels. The tasks consist of a complete set of instructional and assessment activities for immediate classroom use. They also provide a…

Seven specific guidelines included in the taxonomy proposed by T. Haladyna and S. Downing (1998) for writing multiple-choice test items were evaluated. These specific guidelines are: (1) avoid the complex multiple-choice, K-type format; (2) state the stem in question format; (3) word the stem positively; (4) avoid the phrase "all of the…

The paper presents results of preliminary work in developing a scale to assess attention deficit disorder in a manner that provides educationally useful information. Based in part on B. Keogh and J. Margolis's component analysis of attending skills in learning disabled children (skills of coming to attention, sustaining attention, and making…

A test battery was prepared for use in assessing the effectiveness of Head Start and similar programs in fostering young children's development. The instruments were designed to measure program effects on several dimensions of the cognitive, social-emotional, and applied strategies domains. Specific competencies measured are presumed to define in…

Excerpts from a forthcoming book examining the procedures and results of China's Civil service examinations during the Ch'ing dynasty are provided. (DE)