The workshops associated with the Evaluation for Individualized Instruction Project are planned to provide teachers an opportunity to improve their skills in construction and development of evaluation procedures. This is based on the premise that one successful initial approach to the improvement and individualization of instruction is through the…

Using the analogy of temperature measurement, the Rasch model is presented with arguments for its adoption as the basic scaling technique for achievement measures. Three extensions of the Rasch model for more complex testing are developed. Test development for the British national assessment program and the promise of item banking are also…

This report provides a brief introduction to microcomputer technology and discusses five uses of microcomputers in classroom testing: item storage, test assembly, test administration, test scoring, and test score reporting and analysis. It focuses on the testing applications of microcomputer technology. (PN)

A model for evaluation of complex educational settings is proposed. The model covers measurement, judgment, and decision making and the related criteria of reliability, validity, and utility. A second proposed model depicts the provincial educational setting. The development of a provincial item bank illustrates the application of the models. (TJH)

Refutes 14 items from "Computer Test Bank for Heath Physical Science." Discusses the correct answers item by item. (YP)

The degree to which statistical item selection reduces direction-of-wording effects in balanced affective measures developed from relatively small item pools was investigated with 171 male and 228 female undergraduate and graduate students at 2 U.S. universities. Clearest direction-of-wording effects result from selection of items with high…

Replenishing item pools for on-line ability testing requires innovative and efficient data collection. A method is proposed to collect test item calibration data in an on-line testing environment sequentially using locally D-optimum designs, thereby achieving high Fisher information for the item parameters. (SLD)

This study focuses on schoolteacher job satisfaction, dissatisfaction, morale, and facets of professional experience likely to lead to retention or exit from the profession within five years. It was undertaken in an English local education authority which has experienced difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers. Forty facets of professional…

Items with the highest discrimination parameter values in a logistic item response theory (IRT) model do not necessarily give maximum information. This paper shows which discrimination parameter values (as a function of the guessing parameter and the distance between person ability and item difficulty) give maximum information for the…

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…

According to item response theory (IRT), examinee ability estimation is independent of the particular set of test items administered from a calibrated pool. Although the most popular application of this feature of IRT is computerized adaptive (CA) testing, a recently proposed alternative is self-adapted (SA) testing, in which examinees choose the…

The premise of this document is that trade instructors and incumbent workers can work together as a writing team to develop test items for vocational education. The development process used by the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States (V-TECS) is described as follows: (1) identify and validate a task list; (2) conduct task analysis;…

The purpose of this paper is to present two new alternative methods to the current goodness of fit methodology. With the increase use of computerized adaptive test (CAT), the ability to determine the accuracy of calibrated item parameter estimates is paramount. The first method applies a normalizing transformation to the logistic residuals to make…

The effects of a multidimensional latent trait space on estimation of item and person parameters by the computer program LOGIST are examined. Several item pools were simulated that ranged from truly unidimensional to an inconsequential general latent trait. Item pools with intermediate levels of prepotency of the general latent trait were also…

At Santa Fe Community College, the development of a biology course and departmental final examination was accomplished in the following stages: (1) faculty reached consensus on course content, major objectives and sub-objectives; (2) faculty contributed final examination questions corresponding to the 10 major course topics to a pool for review…