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Among the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched in 2015, the fourth goal (SDG 4) is dedicated to education, and one of the ten targets within that goal specifically addresses adult literacy and numeracy skills. Efforts to reach this target involve monitoring, which in turn involves assessment. The most powerful instrument for assessing literacy proficiency is the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It has five hierarchically organised proficiency levels for literacy. A sixth category, labelled "below Level 1", lumps together low proficiencies at the bottom end of the proficiency continuum. To boost effective action in addressing SDG 4, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) recently launched the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML), which aims to support national assessment strategies and to develop internationally comparable indicators and methodological measurement tools. While PIAAC Levels 1–5 are already broadly suitable for international comparison, the "below Level 1" category has so far only been assessed by individual countries (e.g. Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany) using instruments developed nationally. Focusing on the reading aspect of literacy, the authors of this article investigate how these nationally developed low proficiency assessment instruments might be adjusted to facilitate international comparability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study regarding the use of scientific practices and disciplinary ideas in examining the complexity of assessment items. It states that subset items were administered to grade six students to determine the difficulty of the items. It mentions the need to study test validity in representing the knowledge of students in science.

The purpose of this study was to use differential item functioning (DIF) and latent mixture model analyses to explore factors that explain performance differences on a large-scale mathematics assessment between examinees allowed to use a calculator or who were afforded item presentation accommodations versus those who did not receive the same accommodations. Data from a state accountability assessment of mathematics for students in Grade 8 were analyzed. More than 73,000 students participated, of which 12,268 were students with disabilities (SWD) receiving test accommodations. DIF analyses detected performance differences between examinees without accommodations and those who used a calculator or those where the item presentation was altered. Latent performance class analyses revealed that performance differences were associated with item difficulty and abilty in addition to accommodation status. Results support validity studies that use mixture models that can consider context variables related to item type, academic skills, and accommodations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) is responsible in New Zealand for the national assessment of primary school children's achievement in the essential learning areas, one of which is social studies. Individual interviews are one of the approaches used to assess students' understanding. The assessors are registered teachers, selected by NEMP, who attend a training week where they learn how to conduct the standardised assessment tasks and associated interviews. This study examines the reliability of the assessment interviews used in the 2005 round of social studies monitoring, in particular the variations between teacher administrators (TAs) in their use of prompts and probes. The extent of variation observed in the use of three kinds of prompt was sufficient to raise questions about the reliability of the assessment process. A surprising outcome was the consistent failure of TAs to clarify and elucidate students' social studies understandings through the judicious use of probes. The prompt-related variations between TAs and their failure fully to 'tap into' understandings assessed by interview-based tasks are serious threats to the validity of claims regarding students' achievement in social studies. This is particularly concerning as NEMP data are used as the basis for identifying and reporting national patterns and trends in educational performance and making recommendations to policy-makers, curriculum planners and educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly outlines the production and certification of reference materials at the Central Geological Laboratory (CGL) of Mongolia. The marketing of CRMs produced in Mongolia, as well as problems encountered in internationally recognised certification attempts and some proposed solutions, are discussed. The basic elements of the CGL's strategy for the development of the CRM sector are to produce high quality CRMs according to the requirements of internationally recognised norms, to consider the market needs, to certify the RMs at the international level and to widely advertise them to the geochemical community. The CGL has already established the basis for the further development of this sector by, for instance, accreditation under ISO/IEC 17025, by modernising its preparation technology, by cooperation with international organisations in the field of CRMs and by permanent participation in the International Association of Geoanalysts' Geo PT™ proficiency testing programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of students and faculty come to campus with an iPhone or iPod touch. Aside from recreational use, these devices can be used to search for medical literature, but picking the right applications for searching can be difficult. A comparison test was created to find the best application for searching PubMed from an iPhone or iPod touch. The products tested were PubSearch, PubMed on Tap, and PubMed for Handhelds. Although equally accurate, PubMed on Tap was the superior product due to its simple method for limiting by date and its readily accessible e-mail feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study illustrated the use of the Rule Space Method to diagnose students’ proficiencies in, skills and knowledge of statistical hypothesis testing. Participants included 96 undergraduate and, graduate students, of whom 94 were classified into one or more of the knowledge states identified by, the rule space analysis. Analysis at the level of proficiency groups showed that the critical difference, between low and medium proficiency groups was the understanding of statistical concepts and, knowledge while the critical skill discriminating the medium proficiency group from the high, proficiency group was to mange complex computational procedures. In addition, attribute profiles of, two students showed how students with the same total score can possess different strengths and, weaknesses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this research, the author addresses whether the application of unidimensional item response models provides valid interpretation of test results when administering items sensitive to multiple latent dimensions. Overall, the present study found that unidimensional models are quite robust to the violation of the unidimensionality assumption due to secondary dimensions from sensitive items. When secondary dimensions are highly correlated with main construct, unidimensional models generally fit and the accuracy of ability estimation is comparable to that of strictly unidimensional tests. In addition, longer tests are more robust to the violation of the essential unidimensionality assumption than shorter ones. The author also shows that unidimensional item response theory models estimate item difficulty parameter better than item discrimination parameter in tests with secondary dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe potential for corpora in language learning has attracted a significant amount of attention in recent years, including in the form of data-driven learning (DDL). Careful not to appear to over-promote the field, enthusiasts have urged caution in its application, in particular with regard to lower-level learners, and have argued that extensive learner-training in corpus techniques is an essential condition for DDL to be successful. Such limits seem eminently reasonable, but there is a notable dearth of empirical studies to support them. This paper describes a simple experiment to see how lower-level learners cope with corpus data with no prior training.The language focus here is on linking adverbials in English, which are renowned to be difficult to teach using traditional methods. The subjects are 132 first-year students at an engineering college in France of roughly intermediate and lower levels of English. They were divided into random groups to compare their ability to deal with the target items using traditional sources (extracts from a bilingual dictionary or a grammar/usage manual) or corpus data (short contexts or truncated concordances). Performance was tested prior to the experiment, subsequently to check ability to use the different information sources as a reference, and later to test recall.No evidence was found that traditional sources promote better recall, and corpus data seemed to be more effective for reference purposes. While the results of any single experiment must be treated with caution, these findings suggest the need for more empirical studies to complement the theoretical arguments and qualitative data which currently dominate the discussions of DDL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the module Test::Harness which is responsible for running test scripts, analysing their output and reporting success or failure. It cites that any language can be used to write tests that output Test Anything Protocol (TAP). The need to determine which classes are responsible for which functionality to replace any other part of the harness is mentioned. Callbacks can be used to alter the behaviour of the test harness if one wants to observe test execution without changing the behavior of the harness.

The article presents a study which investigates on the assessment practices used by resource room teachers in Jordan to determine the eligibility of students with learning disability and to identify assessment obstacles. It also examines the variabilities of these assessment to establish a framework for formal assessment tools instead of solely basing on the teacher's knowledge of learning disabilities. It notes that the results indicated that most of the teachers rely on teacher-made tests of academic achievement to make eligibility decisions. Moreover, it is asserted that the high rate of referral especially for low achievers is one of the major obstacles with regards to assessment obstacles.

Can short, ungraded, free-writing assignments promote learning of course material? We randomly assigned introductory psychology recitation sections (N = 978 students) to writing or thinking conditions. For all sections, teaching assistants presented students with a discussion topic based in current coursework. Students either wrote or thought about the topic for 5 min. All sections then discussed the topic for approximately 10 min. Exams included questions related to the discussion topics. Students in the writing condition attended class more often and performed better on factual and conceptual multiple-choice exam questions than students in the thinking condition, even after controlling for measures of student quality. The results suggested that brief free writing improved factual and conceptual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students in an introductory psychology course took a quiz a week over each textbook chapter, followed by a cumulative final exam. Students missing a quiz in class could make up a quiz at any time during the semester, and answers to quiz items were available to students prior to the cumulative final exam. The cumulative final exam consisted of half the items previously presented on quizzes; half of those items had the response options scrambled. The performance on similar items on the cumulative final was slightly higher than on the original quiz, and scrambling the response options had little effect. Students strongly supported the quiz a week approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Department of Education has not yet published an official guidance document for using NAEP achievement level scores to confirm state testing results. A review of the literature, however, identified four principles that inform the valid use of NAEP scores in a confirming analysis. These principles address the appropriate NAEP statistic to use to confirm state testing results, the difference between NAEP and state definitions of "proficiency," a rationale for avoiding point-by-point comparisons, and a rationale for using trend analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One approach to measuring unsigned differential test functioning is to estimate the variance of the differential item functioning (DIF) effect across the items of the test. This article proposes two estimators of the DIF effect variance for tests containing dichotomous and polytomous items. The proposed estimators are direct extensions of the noniterative estimators developed by Camilli and Penfield (1997) for tests composed of dichotomous items. A small simulation study is reported in which the statistical properties of the generalized variance estimators are assessed, and guidelines are proposed for interpreting values of DIF effect variance estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Assessment of literacy and numeracy competence in a survey setting with adults presents numerous problems for design, mode of administration and acceptability to respondents. At the same time the key criteria for standardised testing - reliability and validity - need to be met. These problems were faced in a recent development of literacy and numeracy tests for use in the age 34 follow-up in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) that has followed up a sample of over 17,000 individuals since their birth in 1970. The tests also needed to map onto earlier basic skills assessment in the study at age 21 and to match new curriculum standards for adults embodied in the tests used in a national basic skills baseline survey in England, carried Out in 2002. Overall the goals set for the new tests were achieved. The new literacy and numeracy tests tap the core dimensions of literacy and numeracy at the requisite levels to match national curriculum standards. They also have demonstrable reliability and validity as shown in the continuities from earlier measures used in BCS70 and to the National Baseline Survey. ‘Fitness for purpose’ in relation to the research that is to be undertaken using the new test data has thus been demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard item response theory (IRT) models fit to examination responses ignore the fact that sets of items (testlets) often, matched with a single common stimulus (e.g., a reading comprehension passage). In this setting, all items given to an examine are unlikely to be conditionally independent (given examine proficiency). Models that assume conditional independence will overestimate the precision with which examinee proficiency is measured. Overstatement of precision may lead to inaccurate inferences as well as prematurely ended examinations in which the stopping rule is based on the estimated standard error of examinee proficiency (e.g., an adaptive test). The standard three parameter IRT model was modified to include an additional random effect for items nested within the same testlet (Wainer; Bradlow, & Du. 2000). This parameter, γ, characterizes the amount of local dependence in a testlet. We fit 86 TOEFL testlets (50 reading comprehension and 36 listening comprehension) with the new model, and obtained a value for the variance of γ for each testlet, We compared the standard parameters (discrimination (a), difficulty (b) and guessing, (c)) with what is obtained through traditional modeling. We found that difficulties were well estimated either way but estimates of both a and c were biased if conditional independence, is incorrectly assumed. Of greater import, we found that test information was substantially over-estimated when conditional independence was incorrectly assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features the Proficiency Analytical Testing Program (PAT) managed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association in Fairfax, Virginia. Objective of the program; Sets of samples applied in PAT; Criteria in rating laboratories.

Focuses on a study which examined the membrane transport factor of the mammalian protein TAP/p115 cycles between the Golgi transport and earlier secretory compartments and contains distinct domains which are required for its localization and function. Details on the study; Information on the TAP/p115 cycles between the Golgi and earlier secretory compartments; Materials and method used in the study; Results of the study.

Investigates the predictability of rater leniency from Performance Appraisal Discomfort Scale scores. Stable and predictable rater discomfort with performance appraisal situations; Situational demands on performance; Future application for validity of ratings and feedback; Authors from Appalachian State University; Florida Atlantic University and Nova University.

Reports on the analysis of data from the Woodcock-Johnson Revised Achievement Tests (WJ-R). Subjection to exploratory factor analysis; Highly oblique factors found; Representation of use and comprehension of language; Number skill as second factor; Authors from Kansas University.

The article focuses on the interrelationships among various language proficiency tests in the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) including American University of Beirut (AUB) English test, Cloze test and Writing test. These three English language proficiency tests were given to the students who were applying for admission to AUB. Pairwise correlations of the scores of the three tests were all high and the predictability of communicative language proficiency was improved by the combination of the scores of Cloze test and AUB English test. The article states that a cloze component can serve as a valuable supplement for standardized ESL tests.

This article explores the influence of field dependence-independence i.e., individual differences in preferred ways of perceiving, organizing, analyzing, or recalling information, on second language cloze test performance. Field dependence shows a tendency to rely on external frames of reference in cognitive functioning and is considered to promote interpersonal relations. Whereas field independence means reliance on internal rules for processing information and the existence of mental restructuring abilities. 293 college students in an introductory Spanish course at the University of Colorado, volunteered as the subjects of the study. They were taught a 16-week course based on both linguistic and communicative competence. Second language proficiency was assessed in linguistic, communicative, and integrative areas. The result statistics showed a correlation between student field independence and cloze test performance.

The article discusses the significance of learner characteristics and learners' performance on English as a Secondary Language (ESL) tests. It is found that proficiency in English language is one of the most vaguely defined concepts in the field of ESL testing. Learner characteristics possess a strong relationship to learner performance. In the design of most ESL tests, test taker characteristics are not included. Thus, taking into account the difficulty of defining language proficiency, it is perceived that the development and use of proficiency tests would involve more complex steps than other types of language tests. Nationality is also found to be a strong factor in relation to the students' degree of language proficiency in various tests and this may have impact on the efficiency of ESL testing and teaching.

Background. Accurate assessment of reading difficulties is clearly important if appropriate support and remediation is to be provided. Many different reading tests are routinely used yet it is not clear to what extent different tests tap the same underlying skills. Aims. The nature of the relationships between different tests of reading accuracy, reading comprehension and linguistic comprehension is investigated in this paper. Samples, Methods and Results. In study 1,184 7–10 year old children completed a listening comprehension test, three tests of reading accuracy (reading of nonwords, single words and text) and two tests of reading comprehension (text comprehension and sentence completion). While sentence completion was well accounted for by individual differences in word recognition, text comprehension was more heavily dependent on listening comprehension. Study 2 compared the performance of children with poor comprehension skills with controls matched for age, nonverbal ability and decoding skill. The poor comprehenders had greatest difficulty with those tests most heavily dependent on linguistic comprehension and least difficulty on purer measures of decoding. Conclusions. These findings show that different reading tests measure different aspects of the reading process and that caution should be exercised when selecting tests for the assessment of reading difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study which compares the test scores of students from Harvard Project Physics (HPP) with students studying other physics courses. The study showed that HPP students got good scores compared to non-HPP students. In terms of the students responses in the individual items of the test, HPP students showed a full understanding of the physics course. Because of the significant difference of the results taken from of the study, a proposal was presented for the new methodology of test construction that would eventually help developers, teachers and students goal for educational development.

The article discusses the newly proposed construction methodology for educational test called the Course Evaluation I which was developed in the U.S. This was the result of study that uses the general and valid instruments in the selection of the most appropriate level of test for a particular course. The test was evaluated as to its validity with the use of an analytical instrument called the McNemar chi square. Validation covers as to how the test achieves a certain aim in learning. The validation based the actual learning of the students instead of the objective learning required by teachers. This was done to be able to arrive at a formative evaluation of the students.

The article presents a paper on two group discussion techniques to validate test batteries that focus on validating social interaction tests and analyzing the methods of scoring and assessing the tests. Test batteries used for the selection of administrative trainees for industrial corporations consisted of several test situations including objective tests of mental abilities, behavioral tests in interpersonal situations and relationship with colleagues. It states that two social interaction tests were also included in the battery - the leaderless group discussion and the assigned leadership test. According to the authors, a satisfactory method of scoring the group tests has been arrived at that make a unique contribution to an aptitude test battery.

Describes Phonetic Transcription Proficiency Test (PTPT) developed at Gainesville, Florida-based University of Florida, by the use of recordings for providing efficient and reliable estimate of skill in broad transcription of General-American English. Composition of test forms and their order of presentation; Number of students participating in phonetic instruction and speech materials used.

This article presents information on the considerations involved and results obtained in establishing norms for English proficiency tests. There are two parallel forms of the written test, each of which contains sixty-two multiple choice items. One type consists of a question stem which can be answered with one of the choices. The article informs that the objectives of the test battery are threefold. The first is to identify the Amerindian child who needs special training in English versus the child who does not and to determine the placement of the former in the proper level of intensity of training in English. The second purpose is to provide the classroom teacher with specific linguistic information for each child in each language group which could be used as a diagnostic guide for teaching methods or materials. Potentially, a third objective is to provide a means of assessing the relative merit of various English programs. These objectives require that certain decisions be made which can be classified as placement, diagnostic, and evaluative decisions.

The article discusses the development of classification abilities in culturally disadvantaged children. Three groups from middle class and three groups from lower class backgrounds participated in this study. The middle class were enrolled in a public elementary school, while the lower class groups were enrolled in an improvised area. These students undergone six random classification tests to control the effect of learning. Results show that there is a difference between age groups and between classes. Moreover, culturally deprived children have a reduced analytical power to analyze categorical relationships.

The article provides information about American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS). It identifies that one of the most important functions of ASCRS is to cater continuing education for its members and other interested physicians. ASCRS offers a Syllabus that serves a preparatory study for surgeons who will take the Self-Assessment Examination. The ASCRS self-assessment program is intended to provide surgeons with in-depth and up-to-date knowledge related to colon and rectum surgery.

Though it is common coaching practice to provide augmented feedback after poor performances, recent literature suggests that allowing individuals to receive feedback when they request it (a self-controlled schedule) enhances motor learning (Janelle, Kim, & Singer, 1995). Research also suggests that, contrary to typical coaching methods, individuals actually prefer to receive feedback following successful trials (Chiviacowsky & Wulf, 2002). The present study examined the effects of performance-determined and self-controlled feedback schedules on the learning of a task that simulated the striking of a falling ball. Participants saw a circle drop from top to bottom on a computer screen and tried to strike it at a predefined interception point using a mouse-controlled horizontal cursor. Each trial received a score based on cursor speed, X-accuracy, and Y-accuracy. Participants were randomly assigned to a best-trial, worst-trial, or self-controlled feedback group (n = 10). Detailed augmented feedback about one trial was provided in acquisition after every 3-trial set, based on group assignment: the best-trial group received feedback for the most successful of their three previous trials, the worst-trial group for the least successful of their three previous trials, and the self-controlled group for the trial of their choosing. Analysis of delayed, no-feedback retention tests indicated that the worst-trial group demonstrated superior learning advantages for both overall trial performance and movement accuracy. These results are discussed in relation to the self-controlled feedback literature and the relationship between performance success and augmented feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of intelligence tests to understanding students and their behavior. The author states that there is little on the standard intelligence test that taps into executive function so the student who has special gifts of good judgment may well be underestimated by standard tests. He also states that problems exist when results on the achievement tests were used as indicators of how well a student has mastered the content. It is not unusual to have a special program designed to test the upper limits of gifted students' intellects and then turn around and use the results on standard achievement tests as the indicators of achievement of the students.