The evolution of items from the LOCUS assessment
Abstract
The goal for this project is to show the evolution of several items from the Levels of Conceptual Understanding in Statistics (LOCUS) assessment. Current items (that have been through several rounds of revisions by experts in the field operating both individually and as teams) will be compared with their initial versions. The evolution of the items will illustrate the increases in item quality that arise from following the iterative Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) process (Mislevy & Risconsente, 2006), suggesting that item (and assessment) quality improves with revisions and teamwork. The evidence map for the LOCUS assessment is based upon the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) framework (Franklin et al., 2007) and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M). The assessment has potential for use by researchers, teachers, and policy-makers Examining how items were revised from their original conception to the version being piloted this month will show how the iterative ECD process creates items that more closely align with the evidence model for the assessment. Moreover, this will help to establish the content validity of the assessment, and important component of establishing the overall validity. The improvement demonstrated suggests that careful, iterative item development is an integral piece of developing an assessment. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-1118168. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
