Psychometricians who work primarily with multiple-choice items are accustomed to tests with items scored 1 or 0. Performance tests often call for more complex scoring methods. A white paper by Wallace Judd, Ph.D., titled, “Scoring Performance Tests,” provides much-needed guidance. It is the sixth in a series of white papers on performance testing.
Accompanying the white paper is an Excel workbook with sample scoring models. (See “AuTe Performance Test Score Calculators” in the Resources section of the Authentic Testing website.)
In the white paper, Dr. Judd makes a distinction between a “check,” an evaluation of whether a response results in the desired outcome, and the “score,” which converts checks into a summary quantity.
Among the scoring models discussed in the white paper is one that integrates timing into scoring. Where speed and accuracy may be inversely correlated, such a model may be essential to a fair and accurate evaluation.
The papers in this series are intended to be a resource for test developers, illustrating best practices in the performance-testing industry. They provide advice on performance testing topics from initial concept to test delivery.
These topics are presented in language that does not assume study in psychometrics.
The mathematics of any topics are expressed in abbreviated terms instead of the Greek alphabet, and all computations are illustrated in Excel examples.
The papers are published by Authentic Testing, leaders in the field of performance testing, in the hope that they will expand access to performance testing to a wider audience of practitioners, inspiring them to explore the possibilities inherent in performance testing.