Evaluating Content Alignment in Computerized Adaptive Testing

The alignment between a test and the content domain it measures represents key evidence for the validation of test score inferences. Although procedures have been developed for evaluating the content alignment of linear tests, these procedures are not readily applicable to computerized adaptive tests (CATs), which require large item pools and do not use fixed test forms. This article describes the decisions made in the development of CATs that influence and might threaten content alignment. It outlines a process for evaluating alignment that is sensitive to these threats and gives an empirical example of the process.     

Using CRTS in Program Curriculum Evaluation

This monograph describes how criterion-referenced tests (CRTs) can be used in program and curriculum evaluations for developing information to form judgments about educational programs and curricula. The material is organized as follows: a brief introduction to the monograph, its purpose and goals, a discussion of the relationship between evaluation and CRTs, pertinent information about program and curriculum evaluation, relevant facts about CRTs, and a summation. A principal goal of the essay is to describe concepts and procedures in terms that are instructionally illuminating. The reader is guided to identify and examine particular points at which decisions must be made about how, when, and why CRTs may aid the evaluation process. These steps are each identified as "An Instructional Step" and presented in separate boxes with pertinent guiding questions. Conciseness is a further aim of this monograph, one consequence of which is that several important concepts are only cursorily described or alluded to. Annotated references are included. Accompanying this instructional monograph is a "Student's Self-Test." An "Instructor's Guide" with expanded references and materials for photocopying or preparing transparencies is available by mail order (see "Teaching Aids" ordering information).