Sixth Edition Assessment of Student Achievement Series editor Nancy Forsyth Series editorial assistant Cheryl Ouellette Manufacturing buyer Suzanne Lareau Copyright O 1998 1993 1988 1982 1977 1968 by Allyn Bacon A Viacom Company Needham Heights MA 02194 Internet www abacon com America Online keyword College Online All rights reserved No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the copyright owner This book was formerly published under the titles How to Make Achievement Tests and Assessments Constructing Achievement Tests and How to Construct Achievement Tests Norman E Gronlund Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data University o f Illinois Gronlund Norman Edward Assessment of student achievement Norman E G r o n l u n d 4 h ed p cm Rev ed of How to make achievement tests and assessments 5th ed c1993 Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0 20526858 7 1 Achievement tests Design and construction 2 ExaminationsDesign and construction I Gronlund Norman Edward How to make achievement tests and assessments 11 Title LB3060 65 G766 1998 371 26 14 21 97 28326 CIP Printed in the United States of America 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01 00 99 98 97 Allyn and Bacon Boston London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore Multiple Choice Items Strengths 1 Learning outcomes from simple to complex can be measured 2 Highly structured and clear tasks are provided 3 A broad sample of achievement can be measured 4 Incorrect alternatives provide diagnostic information 5 Scores are less influenced by guessing than true false items 6 Scoring is easy objective and reliable Limitations 1 Constructing good items is time consuming 2 It is frequently difficult to find plausible distractors 3 This item is ineffective for measuring some types of problem solving and the ability to organize and express ideas 4 Score can be influenced by reading ability each item is to call forth the type of performance that will help determine the extent to which the intended learning outcomes have been achieved Items designed to measure complex achievement must contain some novelty For example where a knowledge item might require the identification of a textbook definition of a term a comprehension item may require the identification of a modified form of it and an application item may require the identification of an example of its proper use Both the comprehension and application items would function as intended however only if the material was new to the students Thus items measuring complex achievement should require students to demonstrate that they have grasped the meaning of the material and can use it in situations that are new to them 2 Present a single clearly formulated problem in the stem of the item The task set forth in the stem of the item should be so clear that a student can understand it without reading the alternatives In fact a good check on the clarity and completeness of a multiple choicestem is to cover the alternatives and determine whether it could be answered without the choices Try this on the two sample items that follow EXAMPLE dure indicated in the intended learning outcome See the accompanying box for some of the many questions that might be asked at the application level RULES FOR WRITING MULTIPLE CHOICE ITEMS An effective multiple choice item presents students with a task that is both important and clearly understood and one that can be answered correctly by anyone who has achieved the intended learning outcome Nothing in the content or structure of the item should prevent an informed student from responding correctly Similarly nothing in the content or structure of the item should enable an uninformed student to select the correct answer The following rules for item writing are intended as guides for the preparation of multiple choice items that function as intended 1 Design each item to measure an important learning outcome The problem situation around which an item is to be built should be important and should be related to the intended learning outcome to be measured The items in the previous section illustrate how to match items to intended outcomes When writing the item focus on the functioning content of the item and resist the temptation to include irrelevant material or more obscure and less significant content to increase item difficulty Remember that the purpose of Poor A table of specifications A indicates how a test will be used to improve learning B provides a more balanced sampling of content C arranges the instructional objectives in order of their importance D specifies the method of scoring to be used on a test Better What is the main advantage of using a table of specifications when preparing an achievement test A It reduces the amount of time required B It improves the sampling of content C It makes the construction of test items easier D It increases the objectivity of the test The first of these examples is no more than a collection of true false statements with a common stem The problem presented in the stem of the improved version is clear enough to serve as a supply type short answer item The alternatives simply provide a series of possible answers from which to choose Note also in the second version that a single problem is presented in the stem Including more than one problem usually adds to the complexity of the wording and reduces the diagnostic value of the item When students fail such an item there is no way to determine which of the problems prevented them from responding correctly 3 State the stem of the item in simple clear language The problem in the stem of a multiple choice item should be stated as precisely as possible and should be free of unnecessarily complex wording and sentence structure Anyone who possesses the knowledge measured by a test item should be able to select the correct answer Poorly stated item stems frequently introduce sufficient ambiguity to prevent a knowledgeable student from responding correctly Also complex sentence structure may make the item a measure more of reading comprehension than of the intended outcome The first of the two examples that follow is an extreme instance of this problem EXAMPLE Poor The paucity of plausible but incorrect statements that can be related to a central idea poses a problem when
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