ITEMS: Ed measurement/statistics web-based instructional modules

I just read about the ITEM project in the latest issue of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. All school-based assessment professionals might want to take a look and see....the materials may be useful in educating others about what scores mean, what they do and don't tell us, and what score differences mean.

Project Description from ITEMS web page (emphasis and links added by IQ's Corner blogmaster)

• In the current No Child Left Behind era, K-12 teachers and administrators are expected to have a sophisticated understanding of standardized test results, use them to improve instruction, and communicate them to others. Many educators, however, have never had the opportunity to acquire the "assessment literacy" required for these roles. The goal of the ITEMS project, directed by Rebecca Zwick of the University of California Santa Barbara, was to develop and evaluate three Web-based instructional modules in educational measurement and statistics to address this training gap. We created three 25-minute modules: "What's the Score?" (2005), "What Test Scores Do and Don't Tell Us" (2006), and "What's the Difference?" (2007). Overall, 250 K-12 teachers and administrators participated in our research, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the modules in communicating educational measurement and statistics concepts, especially for teacher education students. Our modules are now freely available on our website, http://items.education.ucsb.edu, in low- and high-bandwidth versions, with optional closed captioning. Also posted are supplementary materials, including glossaries, formulas, reference lists, and quizzes corresponding to each module. The provision of this training in a convenient and economical way is intended to assist schools with the successful implementation and interpretation of assessments. Several school districts have let us know they are using the materials, and at least one teacher education program has incorporated them into its curriculum.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, education, educational testing, educational measurement, statistics, testing, NCLB, test scores, psychometrics