RESOURCES

This article describes what “secure test design” means and why it’s important for credentialing programs. It also provides proven techniques for professional testing organizations to maximize security measures during test development processes.

Allow us to introduce you to the Assessment Life Cycle, an illustration coined by Meazure Learning psychometricians to help simplify and visualize the typical stages of test development. This process is cyclical, not linear. Through this seven-stage method, we demystify the testing process so you can be confident in your exam results, whether you’re a seasoned psychometrician or new to the testing world.

When it comes to translation and localization, perspective is everything. Over the past several decades, Meazure Learning has translated hundreds of examinations and documents into multiple languages. Most languages have multiple dialects, and each has its own nuances and idiosyncrasies, so what may seem like a straightforward task, can be very complex. Aurélie Lecocq will lead a discussion around the challenges of assessment translation and how to move forward as an industry.

At this point, your exam has been administered to test-takers. Based on the pattern of test-taker responses, each item has been reviewed to ensure that it meets psychometric standards. And from this analysis, you now have a well-vetted and validated set of test-taker exam scores. What’s left to do now? This white paper explores many of the considerations when undertaking this stage in the exam development life cycle.

At this stage, it is important to revisit the now-vetted set of exam items and calculate test-takers’ final exam scores efficiently and accurately. Stage 6 of the Assessment Life Cycle involves calculating test-takers’ scores on the exam they completed and generating reports that will communicate these results in the clearest and most valid manner possible. The purpose of this white paper is to explain the process of generating final test-taker scores and reports and to explore the considerations that go into designing and disseminating various score reports that meet each client’s unique needs.

At this stage of the cycle, the exam has been written and you are sitting on a pile of test-taker response data. But your work is not over quite yet. Stage 5 of the Assessment Life Cycle involves analyzing test-takers’ responses and looking for patterns to evaluate whether the items in your exam have indeed created a valid assessment. This white paper explores many of the considerations when undertaking this process.

Exam administration is careful work; a good deal of planning goes into ensuring it is handled correctly. The central concern at this point in the Assessment Life Cycle is making sure that your examination is administered under the proper testing conditions, and that sensitive data is handled appropriately. If done correctly, the tasks of Stage 4 ensure that your examination will be administered in a way that respects the stakes (or ‘seriousness’) of the exam and supports the validity and defensibility of your assessment program. This white paper explores many of the considerations when undertaking this process.

Stage 3 of the Assessment Life Cycle is where exam developers take the items that were written and banked in Stage 2 and compile them to into one (or more) examination forms. This may sound fairly easy; indeed, sometimes examination assembly is just a matter of finding the right items to assess the required subject areas. However, assembling a valid and well-balanced examination form from an item bank is a careful process, and one that requires meticulous effort. This is especially true when creating licensure or certification examinations, or other high-stakes assessments. This white paper explores many of the considerations when undertaking this process.

Stage 2 of the Assessment Life Cycle is where test questions are created and used to populate an item bank. That may sound simple enough, but in truth, item development is careful work. It requires the coordinated effort of several groups of experts to ensure that the final examination includes the right number and quality of items and is organized into the right categories. This white paper explores many of the considerations when undertaking this process.

Every assessment program starts with defining targets and creating test specifications. During this stage, the test developers decide what the goal of their assessment is going to be. These goals are formalized and used to create an “examination blueprint,” which specifies the number and type of questions that the assessment requires to soundly measure each knowledge area. This white paper explores many of the considerations when undertaking this process.