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Full-Text Articles in Education

Examining The Evidence : Science Achievement In Australian Schools In Timss 2002, Sue Thomson, Nicole Fleming Dec 2003

Examining The Evidence : Science Achievement In Australian Schools In Timss 2002, Sue Thomson, Nicole Fleming

Nicole Wernert

Australia, 10030 students in 414 schools participated in the main sample of TIMSS 2002/03. ...Results are reported as average scores with the standard error, as distributions of scores, and as percentages of students who attain the international benchmarks, for countries and specific groups of students within Australia.


Summing It Up : Mathematics Achievement In Australian Schools In Timss 2002, Nicole Fleming, Sue Thomson Dec 2003

Summing It Up : Mathematics Achievement In Australian Schools In Timss 2002, Nicole Fleming, Sue Thomson

Nicole Wernert

This document analyses and interprets the Australian data collected as part of the TIMSS study for Year 4 and Year 8 students.


Assessment Criteria In A Large-Scale Writing Test: What Do They Really Mean To The Raters?, Tom Lumley Dec 2001

Assessment Criteria In A Large-Scale Writing Test: What Do They Really Mean To The Raters?, Tom Lumley

Dr Tom Lumley

The process of rating written language performance is still not well understood, despite a body of work investigating this issue over the last decade or so (e.g., Cumming, 1990; Huot, 1990; Vaughan, 1991; Weigle, 1994a; Milanovic et al., 1996). The purpose of this study is to investigate the process by which raters of texts written by ESL learners make their scoring decisions using an analytic rating scale designed for multiple test forms. The context is the Special Test of English Proficiency (step), which is used by the Australian government to assist in immigration decisions. Four trained, experienced and reliable step …


The Effect Of Interlocutor And Assessment Mode Variables In Overseas Assessments Of Speaking Skills In Occupational Settings, T Mcnamara, Tom Lumley Jun 1997

The Effect Of Interlocutor And Assessment Mode Variables In Overseas Assessments Of Speaking Skills In Occupational Settings, T Mcnamara, Tom Lumley

Dr Tom Lumley

The increasing demand for performance assessment of speaking skills in second languages has led to logistic complications, for example, the delivery of tests in overseas locations. One solution to the problem has been to train native interlocutors to carry out a series of oral interactions with the candidate, with assessment from audiorecordings of the test session postponed and conducted centrally by a small team of trained raters. But these procedures raise questions about the effect of such facets of the assessment situation as interlocutor variables and the quality of the audiotape recording. This article examines these issues in the context …


Anchor Tests, Score Equating And Sex Bias, Geoff Masters Dec 1987

Anchor Tests, Score Equating And Sex Bias, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper discusses the use of anchor tests (scaling tests) to bring two or more sets of scores to a common scale. Particular attention is given to the rescaling of school based assessments against an external test or examination and to potential sources of bias in this procedure. The need for routine validity checks is emphasised, and a latent trait approach to constructing a statistical framework for tests and examination score equating is described and illustrated. Bias caused by rescaling school assessments against an inappropriate anchor test is illustrated using a 1984 attempt to rescale students assessments in English against …


Item Discrimination: When More Is Worse, Geoff Masters Dec 1987

Item Discrimination: When More Is Worse, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

High item discrimination can be a symptom of a special kind of measurement disturbance introduced by an item that gives persons of high ability a special advantage over and above their higher abilities. This type of disturbance, which can be interpreted as a form of item bias, can be encouraged by methods that routinely interpret highly discriminating items as the best items on a test and may be compounded by procedures that weight items by their discrimination. The type of measurement disturbance described and illustrated in this paper occurs when an item is sensitive to individual differences on a second, …


Banking Non-Dichotomously Scored Items, Geoff Masters, John Evans Dec 1985

Banking Non-Dichotomously Scored Items, Geoff Masters, John Evans

Prof Geoff Masters AO

A method for constructing a bank of items scored in two or more ordered response categories is described and illustrated. This method enables multistep problems, rating scale items, question 'clusters', and other items using partial credit scoring to be calibrated and incorporated into an item bank, and it provides a mechanism for computer adaptive testing with items of this type. Procedures are described for calibrating an initial set of items, for testing the fit of items to the underlying measurement model, and for linking new items to an existing item bank. The method is illustrated using items from the Watson-Glaser …