Introducing Second Language Assessment

In Chapter 9, the author discusses both content and statistical approaches to evaluating and revising criterion-referenced assessments at both the item and test levels. The chapter includes guidelines for judging criterion-referenced item types and the content of specific items. The chapter also discusses standard setting and takes readers through an example of how to use the Angoff method for this purpose. It introduces descriptive statistics for criterion-refenced assessments, including median, mastery rate, item facility, and B-Index, a statistic that provides an indication of how well an item distinguishes among test takers who have mastered and test takers who have not mastered the targeted ability of the assessment. The chapter concludes with an explanation of how to calculate and interpret dependability for a classroom vocabulary test. It includes an appendix which shows how to use Excel to calculate each of the statistics that the chapter introduces.