| Abstract: | The purpose of this study was to gather evidence to examine the validity of alternative methods for assessing the spelling achievements of students in Grades 2–7. Students in Grades 2, 3, 5, and 7 took both a dictation spelling test and an objective spelling test. Scores from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were available for nearly all students. Comparisons among item formats centered on difficulty, content coverage and efficiency, reliability, relationship with dictation scores, the influence of context, and relationship to overall achievement. Overall, no single objective format stood out above the others, but some demonstrated superiority to the dictation format on several dimensions. |
