The Optional Essay Problem and the Hypothesis of Equal Difficulty [electronic resource] / Nancy L. Allen and Others.
A special case of examinee choice, the Optional Essay Problem, is examined from the point of view of test equating. The Optional Essay Problem involves equating essay scores when the examinees are required to select an optional essay topic from a list of topics in addition to taking a mandatory test...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1993.
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| Summary: | A special case of examinee choice, the Optional Essay Problem, is examined from the point of view of test equating. The Optional Essay Problem involves equating essay scores when the examinees are required to select an optional essay topic from a list of topics in addition to taking a mandatory test required of all examinees. The conditions that must be satisfied if the null hypothesis of equal difficulty of the essays holds true are derived. If this hypothesis, called "Livingston's Null Hypothesis," holds true, there is no need to equate the scores. The conditions take the form of inequalities about unobservable quantities that may be displayed graphically. They are illustrated with a real example from the Advanced Placement Examinations. S. A. Livingston's (1988) proposal of adjusting essay scores in the Optional Essay Problem is analyzed and explained from the perspective of test equating, and his proposal is generalized to two new proposals that are explicit about the assumptions they make concerning the unobserved data. These methods are illustrated, and the results for adjusting optional essay scores are used to propose comparable procedures for directly adjusting linear composite scores that include mandatory and optional test scores. Six tables and five figures present analysis data. (Contains 12 references.) (SLD) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED386485. |
| Physical Description: | 50 p. |