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Test Construction

Test Construction Committee

Under the guidance in the operational test form creation specifications, Pearson constructs the operational forms to adhere to the test blueprints and the assessment goals outlined in the specifications. These goals are

  • test forms designed to measure well across the full range of student ability;
  • scores that are comparable among forms and across test administrations;
  • scales that support classification of students into performance levels;
  • maximization of the number of parallel forms;
  • minimization of overexposure of items; and
  • adherence to standards for validity, reliability, and fairness (Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, AERA, APA, & NCME, 2014).

Each content-area and grade-level assessment is based on a specific test blueprint that guides how each test was built. Test blueprints determine the range and distribution of content, and the distribution of points across the subclaims and task types.

Multiple core forms are constructed for a given assessment to enhance test security and to support opportunity for item release. Core forms are the operational test forms consisting of only those items that counted toward a student’s score. Additionally, appropriate forms are identified as accessibility and accommodated forms. The forms are accommodated to support braille, large print, human reader/human signers, assistive technology, text-to-speech, closed captioning, and Spanish. Human reader/human signers and Spanish are provided for mathematics assessments only. Closed captioning is provided for ELA/L assessments only.

Test Construction Activities

After the Data Review meetings and prior to the Test Construction meetings, Pearson assessment specialists construct initial versions of all the core forms. Content specialists construct the initial core forms based on the support documents. The following steps are used to construct the operational core forms taken to the Test Construction Committee for review:

  • constructed the online forms to match the blueprint and test construction specifications
  • constructed the paper forms to match the blueprint and test construction specifications
  • constructed accommodated and accessibility forms to match the blueprint, test construction specifications, and Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness (AAF) constraints

The test-construction process includes sequential steps between content specialists and psychometricians. Custom test construction reports generated by the Pearson psychometric team provide information on adherence to blueprint and statistical averages/distributions of item difficulty and discrimination describing the forms and allowing comparison of the forms. These reports facilitate content changes to better achieve the test construction goals.

Pearson assessment specialists identify forms for each grade/subject suitable for use as the accommodated forms. The Pearson psychometric team reviews the properties of each of the accommodated forms with respect to the required criteria. The content of these forms is also reviewed by Pearson accessibility specialists allowing for content changes prior to the Test Construction Committee meetings.

Taken together, these activities provide significant inputs to commence the Test Construction meetings including

  • the proposed items for the initial operational core forms and the accommodated forms described above
  • reports describing each form
  • recommended accommodated forms

Test Construction Committee and Meeting to Review Test Construction Inputs

Educators and bias members will be asked to participate in the Test Construction meeting to build operational core forms to meet assessment blueprints for the performance-based and short-answer components of the summative assessment, scheduled to be administered during the school year. Members of the Test Construction Committee participate in the building of operational core forms that meet the summative assessment requirements. The committee uses in-person meetings to review and make recommendations for changes so that test forms conform to both the content and psychometric requirements of the assessment.