An Attitude Toward Blindness Questionnaire (ATBQ) was developed to assess individual progress through a Veterans Administration blind rehabilitation program. The instrument is also meant to measure attitudes toward blindness for blind persons, rehabilitation workers, and a "naive" group without contact with the blind. A method of…

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Mathematics Assessment (1982) data were analyzed using latent class models to determine patterns of distinct skills required by different exercises and to estimate the pattern distributions. The populations were 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old examinees. Skills were assumed to be intermediate between…

Reliability and validity of the Ilyin Oral Interview (IOI) are examined with respect to interscorer agreement. This test is a structured questionnaire based on a sequence of pictures depicting common events in the daily life of a student. Interviews of 11 students from an English as a second language (ESL) class at the University of New Mexico…

Several special cases of the general Rasch model, varying in complexity, were investigated to determine whether they could successfully model realistic multidimensional item response data. Whether the parameters of the model could be readily interpreted was also investigated. The models investigated included: (1) the vector model; (2) the product…

Three kinds of instructionally sensitive achievement tests are described which provide useful information on formal schooling proficiencies: placement, progress, and attainment tests. Procedures to design, develop, and empirically verify attainment and placement tests are presented. The methodology is designed to ensure that the test instruments…

In most item response theory models a particular mathematical form is assumed for all item characteristic curves, e.g., a logistic function. It could be desirable, however, to estimate the shape of the item characteristic curves without prior restrictive assumptions about its mathematical form. We have developed a practical method of estimating…

Discussion of an item analysis on 40 questions given to 10-year-olds, and presented in a previous issue, is completed. In general, teachers' expectaions of the most important problems and student performance agreed. Several questions on decimals, area, and volume proved most difficult. Limitations of the study are noted. (LS)

A recent study of the quality of life in the rural South developed a weighted index of the overall quality of living based on subjective evaluations by rural residents of such concerns as the local government's quality, politics, political organizations, schools, educational system, churches, civic organizations, recreational facilities, job…

This document is a detailed module for instructing teacher trainees in the test development process. Upon completion of the package, the student is expected to be able to (1) identify pre-planning steps in test construction, (2) apply the two-way grid method of item classification, (3) develop and evaluate test items, and (4) apply item analysis…

Because it is a true score model employing item parameters which are independent of the examined sample, item characteristic curve theory (ICC) offers several advantages over classical measurement theory. In this paper an approach to biased item identification using ICC theory is described and applied. The ICC theory approach is attractive in that…

A series of studies on conceptual and design problems in competency-based measurements are explained. The concept of validity within the context of criterion-referenced measurement is reviewed. The authors believe validation should be viewed as a process rather than an end product. It is the process of marshalling evidence to support…

A continuing project titled "Measuring Career Readiness in Elementary Education" had as its fourth-year goal constructing learning activities to coordinate with six subtest areas of the Career Education Readiness Test (CERT). The secondary goal was to continue the refinement of the CERT through the analysis of data gathered during the…

Three levels of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were studied to disclose the possible existence of sex bias in mathematics test items. Two mathematics tests (mathematical concepts and mathematics problem solving) and two comparison verbal tests (vocabulary and reading) were selected for analysis at three levels--grades 3, 6, and 8. Samples of 480…

Two different formats for multiple-choice test items were compared in an experimental test given in a college class in introductory psychology. In one format, a question or incomplete statement was followed by four answers or completions, only one of which was correct. In the other format, the double multiple-choice version, the same questions…