PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative/Feasibility (142)

This paper presents a method for estimating the accuracy and consistency of classifications based on test scores. The scores can be produced by any scoring method, including the formation of a weighted composite. The estimates use data from a single form. The reliability of the score is used to estimate its effective test length in terms of discrete items. The true-score distribution is estimated by fitting a four-parameter beta model. The conditional distribution of scores on an alternate form, given the true score, is estimated from a binomial distribution based on the estimated effective test length. The agreement between classifications on two alternate forms is estimated by assuming conditional independence, given the true score. An evaluation of the method showed that the estimates of the percent of test-takers correctly classified and the percent consistently classified were within one percentage point of the actual values in most cases. Although the estimated effective test length and the estimates of the conditional standard error of measurement are sensitive to changes in the specified minimum and maximum possible scores, the estimates of the decision accuracy and decision consistency statistics are nnt. (Contains seven tables and seven references.) (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document