Technical Report - International Military Testing Association

-.
Item Writers Aptitude Test Development Coornittec Report
Date of Meeting: 21 October 196t.
Place of Meeting: EfCA Conference, Fort Benjamin HarrLdon, Indianapolis,
Indiana.
Committee Members: Mr. William W. !kr!ce, USA, Chainon
Lt Harvey C. Gregoire, USAF
Mr. fn:,rlte A, Nudoon, US?4
I:r. John D. Kraf t, USA
Hajor Joe R. Shafer, USAF
#r. William M. Minter, USA
hmary of Discussion:
a. All services rsprejented gave a brief description of hov their
test item writers are selected, None of the service8 currently u8es er.y
special selection procedures other than subject-mhttar knowledge. The
coernittee members felt that Subject-matter background was not a serious
problem since the itcm uritars befng designated for test item construction
duties are generally adequate in this respect.
b. In general) the item urttero in all services perform skmilar
duties. The Navy and Air Porte have their ftem writera come to a central
location here they work directly with tC8t speclalist8. The Amy operates
on a more decentralized basis in that the item writers are located mainly at
Army Sertlice Schools and construct test itomr bared on wrtttcu speclffcotionr
sent to them by the US Army Enlisted Evaluatior, Center. Test Sp.?Ciatt~tS
from the latter locetfon make TDY trips to the item-writing agencies to
coordinate the test development efforts,
c. The ccmmittes felt that the followfng two major areas should be
inveetigated as being most likely to provide valid fact ~8 which would
asslat in screening the better from the poorer test item writers:
(1) Personal hfatory items.
(2) Test results obtained from measuring factoru, such a8 English
usage, intelligence, and analytical reading ability. ,
d. Some “brain storming” vas done by the cora3fttee to get some fndfcation
of the types of personal history items or teets that might be used
to asse8s item writera’ aptitude. However, the committee felt that a
thorough and ccmprehenstve analysfe would need to be made of the f tern writer
duties before the best groupfng of potential personal history item8 and
tests could be compiled for use in fretting up an experimental desfgn appropriate
for conducting a validation study.
1. -
.
182
_ . _ _.
_.._.-_--.. -_--- -.--.--
- - _^
.-
. .
-
.