Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

This essay explores what is known and what remains to be learned about the information value of performance items when they are used in large scale assessment. Within the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), there is substantial interest in answering these questions as issues of national assessment are considered for the future. The concept of information value is operationalized in the essay. Information has value to the degree that it helps in decision making or drawing conclusions about issues that matter. In education the issues that matter usually take the form of questions about cognitive processes or curriculum. This essay is divided into four sections. The first considers the construct of information value in its broadest sense, and then describes ways to operationalize it. The second section reviews the available literature within each of the operational traditions of: (1) item response theory; (2) factor analysis; and (3) correlational studies. The third section considers some alternative versions of information value, based on more cognitive, conceptual, and pragmatic considerations. The final section outlines a series of studies that, it is asserted, should be supported by the National Center for Educational Statistics to answer the questions about how the NAEP can be modified to increase its information value. The question of what constructed response items add to the interpretation of NAEP results is critical at this point in the history of the NAEP. Critics assert that constructed response items should be eliminated in the interests of economy and precision. Until, and unless, it can be demonstrated that there are grounds, whether psychometric, conceptual, or pragmatic, for maintaining or expanding the emphasis on constructed response items, their use will be questioned and questionable. (Contains 26 references.) (SLD)

The purpose of this essay is to explore both what is known and what needs to be learned about the information value of performance items "when they are used in large scale assessments." Within the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), there is substantial motivation for answering these questions. Over the past decade, in order to adequately portray the breadth and depth of important curriculum standards, NAEP designers have invested substantial time and energy in creating extended constructed-response items and enormous financial resources in scoring these items. While these items are popular with curriculum experts within various content areas (Linn, Glaser, & Bohrnstedt, 1997), it is not clear whether they possess the marginal utility required to justify their cost; that is, they may not provide new information above and beyond that which is provided by a more standard mix of multiple-choice and short items with known measurement characteristics and much more economical scoring protocols. Even worse, there is some reason to believe, based on research in non-NAEP settings, that extended constructed-response items may provide negative returns in terms of the overall goal of accurate measurement of performance on some broad domain such as reading, mathematics, or science (see Forsyth, Hambleton, Linn, Mislevy, and Yen, 1996). To investigate this claim, the authors traversed the "information value" terrain along as many paths as they could find--combing the measurement literature to determine the various ways in which scholars have conceptualized and operationalized the "information value" construct, reviewing research conducted within those approaches, consulting essays that emphasize the importance of strong conceptual grounding in content frameworks, studying the broadest available construal of the construct of validity (e.g., Messick, 1989), and, finally, and most unsatisifyingly, attempting to determine, at a conceptual and philosophical level, what the assessment community means when they talk about the information provided by assessments. This essay is organized into four sections. First, the authors consider the construct of information value in its broadest philosophical sense and then describe the classical ways of operationalizing it. Second, they review the available literature within each of these operational traditions (IRT, factor analysis, correlational studies). Third, they consider some alternative versions of information value, based more on cognitive, conceptual, and pragmatic considerations. Finally, they outline a series of studies that they believe ought to be supported by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) in order to answer the question of how NAEP can be modified to increase its "information value."

This paper first provides a summary and overview of what is already known and what is needed to learn about item types for future assessments by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In essence, the question addressed is whether constructed response items provide more information about what students are capable of doing than that provided by multiple choice items alone. If so, what types of skills are tapped by the constructed response items that are not measured by multiple choice items. A fresh examination of the relationship between multiple choice and constructed response items is needed. The paper proposes a set of studies that would provide needed information about the value added of performance items in mixed format assessments such as the NAEP. (Contains 26 references.) (SLD)

1Bird Study Book

By Thomas Gilbert Pearson

Do you enjoy bird watching? Would you like to learn a little more about the early conservation efforts to protect wild birds? In the Preface to The Bird Study Book, Pearson tells us “This book was written for the consideration of that ever-increasing class of Americans who are interested in acquiring a greater familiarity with the habits and activities of wild birds. Attention is also given to the relation of birds to mankind and the effect of civilisation on the bird-life of the country. ” An avid ornithologist, T. Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) was a co-founder in 1905 of the National Association of Audubon Societies of which he was first secretary and then president for many years. He was also a pioneer of the conservation movement in the United States, international bird protection and broad nature education for school-aged children. (Audubon Magazine. 42: 370–371. Nov-Dec 1943)

2Escape of a Princess Pat

By George Pearson

Being the full account of the capture and fifteen months' imprisonment of Corporal Edwards, of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and his final escape from Germany into Holland. (Summary from Book subtitle)<BR><BR>This is to celebrate Remembrance Day 2008.<BR><BR> NB. There are recordings of Chapter 4 by two different readers. The zip file includes both. Variety is the spice of life!

3Gutenberg and the Art of Printing

By Emily Clemens Pearson

This book is readable account of one of the greatest inventions of modern time: moveable type. Gutenberg's work lays the foundation for the printing press, without which the world would look very different... It reads both as biography and as historical fiction, in addition to being an introduction to the history of printing. We follow along on the ups and downs of Gutenberg himself and his family life, and the collaborations with others that lead to printing. - Summary by kathrinee