ACT Assessment & Evaluation Methods 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A test administrator notices that examinees in the front row consistently score higher than those in the back. This most likely indicates a problem with:
- Construct validity
- Test-retest reliability
- Standardized testing conditions (Correct answer)
- Item difficulty calibration
Correct answer: Standardized testing conditions
Inconsistent physical conditions across the testing room (such as visibility or noise) violate standardization requirements.
Question 2: When an ACT administrator is instructed to read directions verbatim, the PRIMARY reason is to:
- Reduce testing time
- Ensure all examinees receive identical instructions (Correct answer)
- Prevent examinees from asking questions
- Comply with copyright requirements
Correct answer: Ensure all examinees receive identical instructions
Reading verbatim ensures standardization so that no examinee gains an unfair advantage from paraphrased or expanded explanations.
Question 3: A norm-referenced test compares an individual's performance to:
- A predetermined mastery cutoff score
- The performance of a defined reference group (Correct answer)
- The test blueprint's content coverage
- Prior year national pass rates
Correct answer: The performance of a defined reference group
Norm-referenced tests rank examinees relative to a norming sample, not against a fixed performance standard.
Question 4: Standard error of measurement (SEM) is BEST described as:
- The average score across all examinees
- An estimate of variability in an examinee's observed scores due to measurement error (Correct answer)
- The difference between the highest and lowest test scores
- The correlation between two forms of the same test
Correct answer: An estimate of variability in an examinee's observed scores due to measurement error
SEM quantifies how much an individual's observed score is expected to vary from their true score due to measurement error.
Question 5: Which accommodation is typically NOT considered appropriate for a standard ACT administration unless documented in an approved accommodation plan?
- Allowing scratch paper for calculations
- Providing extended time beyond the standard limits (Correct answer)
- Permitting examinees to underline text
- Allowing examinees to skip and return to questions
Correct answer: Providing extended time beyond the standard limits
Extended time is a formal accommodation requiring prior approval and documentation to maintain test validity.
Question 6: In assessment, 'face validity' refers to the degree to which a test:
- Accurately measures the theoretical construct it claims to measure
- Appears relevant and appropriate to examinees on its surface (Correct answer)
- Correlates strongly with an established criterion measure
- Produces consistent scores across multiple administrations
Correct answer: Appears relevant and appropriate to examinees on its surface
Face validity is a superficial judgment that a test looks like it measures what it purports to measure, not a technical measure of validity.
Question 7: An examinee's scaled score differs from a raw score because scaling:
- Removes all incorrect answers from the total
- Adjusts for differences in difficulty across test forms (Correct answer)
- Converts scores to a percentage format
- Ranks examinees from highest to lowest performance
Correct answer: Adjusts for differences in difficulty across test forms
Scaling (equating) allows scores from different test forms of varying difficulty to be compared on a common scale.
ACT Assessment & Evaluation Methods 2
A test administrator notices that examinees in the front row consistently score higher than those in the back.
This most likely indicates a problem with: