Several exams have been produced and sent in to us, and I’d like to thank all those who are actively contributing to this project. Item writing is not a trivial task.
Please see the department’s curriculum web site at https://sites.google.com/site/acfcurriculum/ for details and support materials. Carey asked me to remind all of us about the calendar. A mid-point review meeting is scheduled for June 11th. I know I’m already behind. I’ve signed up to write all the unit tests for Math 30-1, but don’t let that stop you. My exams could be a form B and yours a form A if you’d like to contribute.
Here are the guides to using the Blueprint Template, Exam Template, and Assignment Template:
All the exam blueprints are available on the P: drive at P:\Official Curriculum High School\MAT3791 and P:\Official Curriculum High School\MAT3792 . Please note that all unit exams are now composed of 17 MC and 7 NR questions, with no written response. Research shows that MC and NR measure exactly the same things as WR items, and more reliably. A big advantage of having tests composed of all MC and NR is that reliability is easy to calculate using Kudar-Richardson Formula 21:
KR21 = [k/(k-1)][1 – X(k-X)/(ks2)]
Where k is the number of items, X is the mean raw score, and s2 is the variance of the raw score. More items cause higher reliability. A greater spread in scores indicates greater reliability. Calculating the reliability of tests with written items is laborious and although GaschniTRON does this, there is no way around manual entry, no matter what software you use. Using MC and NR items also enables more samples from the content domain, increasing content validity.
The Math 30-1 exam manager tells me we are not permitted to view the exam in the November 2012 writing. We are also not permitted to write the diploma exam ourselves. We will be permitted to peruse the exam in January 2013. There will be no released items this year. The information bulletins will be out end of June. The Math 30-2 diploma exam is only offered in January 2013 and its information bulletin will also be out end of June.
For those of you who are interested in item writing theory, here are some documents folks tell me are helpful:
· Writing Effective Machine-Scored Questions from Alberta Education (an 80 page guide to writing MC and NR items for math and science at P:\STAFF FOLDERS\Michael Gaschnitz\Writing Effective Machine-Scored Questions\Writing Effective Machine-Scored Questions from Alberta Education.pdf)
o “The ideal item assesses appropriate content accurately, concisely, and consistently” (Baranowski, 2006).
· A Review of Multiple-Choice Item-Writing Guidelines for Classroom Assessment (the classic study by Haladyna, Downing, and Rodriquez)
o Note that this study says MC items with three options are perfectly acceptable, but we will stick with 4 primarily for aesthetic reasons.
Here are some useful links that are also on the Math 30s development website:
· Information Bulletins (Math 30-1 and Math 30-2 will be posted by end of June)
If you have any questions about the project, please ask.
403-410-1561
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