October 1, 1980
Determining Test Length to Control for False-Positive and False-Negative Error Rates on Criterion-Referenced Tests
Authors:
Rand R. Wilcox
When determining how many items to include on a criterion-referenced test, practitioners must resolve various non-statistical issues before a particular solution can be applied. A fundamental problem is deciding which of three true scores should be used. The first is based on the probability that an examinee is correct on a “typical” test item. The second is the probability of having acquired a typical skill among a domain of skills, and the third is based on latent trait models. Once a particular true score is settled upon, there are several perspectives that might be used to determine test length. The paper reviews and critiques these solutions. Some new results are described that apply when latent structure models are used to estimate an examinee’s true score.
Wilcox, R. R. (1980). Determining test length to control for false-positive and falsenegative error rates on criterionreferenced tests (CSE Report 147). Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Evaluation.|Wilcox, R. R. (1980). Determining test length to control for false-positive and falsenegative error rates on criterionreferenced tests (CSE Report 147). Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Evaluation.