Introduction and Purpose of the Test Development - Assignment Example

Once content validity is achieved, the test items will cover all aspects of content that it is meant to cover. But this can certainly not be achieved if the test development is poorly done. This document, therefore, contains a report on the development process used in the construction of test items for Tests and Measure Testing Corporation. The development of the test involved several activities and tasks, most of which emphasized the need to ensure that the tests achieved reliability. Background on reliability Reliability of a test addresses the issue of consistency with the test items and scale of measurement (Humphrey, 2001).

For example in using a bathroom scale to measure the weight of a person, if the first weighing that is taken processes an outcome of 80kg, it is expected that when the next weighing is done within an hour, there will be consistency with the measure, achieving a weight around 80kg and not something excessively above or below 80kg. In effect, once the test is reproduced at a different setting with almost all variables unchanged, the same range of results must be produced (Humphrey, 2001). With test items such as the one constructed for Tests and Measures Testing Corporation, several factors could account for the reliability of test items.

One of these has to do with the memory effect during the administration of the test. What this means is that the achievement of reliability is equally important in the construction of the test as in its administration. Generally, though, the forms of reliability that will be expected in a test for social concept collection would include test-retest reliability, parallel form reliability, and inter-rater reliability (Chen and So, 2002). Item development process The development process of the test involved several important steps and activities.

Some of the most important steps are outlined in this section of the paper. For example, the test items were written in a manner that made them contain a stem, which is a question that possesses three or more answer options (Chen and So, 2002). Next, the researcher ensured that the test items possessed the ability to measure what they were meant to measure. This was achieved by avoiding all forms of deviation from the main thematic contents that were prepared ahead of the actual development stage.

Even more, thorough editing was done with the help of a professional editor to ensure that all forms of mistakes in terms of grammar, spelling, and the use of slang were avoided. This was done to ensure that respondents could have a precise idea and meaning of the data the researcher was intending to collect from them. To avoid repetition of the same content areas, the researcher undertook a sieving process to ensure that the test item that measured the same idea was eliminated. Furthermore, the test items were constructed to function independently, meaning that the researcher ensured that by answering one question, the answerer will not be given a clue to answer another question as a result.

Finally, external events that would affect the test were identified as well as a very reliable measurement of error identified and minimized. The proposed method of administration The test items have been constructed as multiple choice questions, making it possible to undertake quantitative analysis of results easier and more accessible.