Overview of the Most Difficult Technical Issues on the VNT / Gary Skaggs and Mary Lyn Bourque.

Political and legislative pressures have posed a number of measurement issues and challenges to the development of sound, valid voluntary national tests (VNTs). This paper focuses on what appear to be the most difficult technical issues related to the VNT proposed by President Clinton in 1997. Technical issues refer to psychometric issues, as opposed to administrative or policy issues. The requirement that the VNT be linked to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to the maximum extent possible, in addition to linking with the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS), poses a number of technical issues. These include: (1) the lack of experience with linking reading test results; (2) the type of linking methodology; (3) linking design; (4) model specification; (5) the stability of linking; and (6) the invariance of linking. The desired result of the VNT is a classification of students according to NAEP achievement levels. Complexities of the classification process include the reliability of classification and test length and selection of items. Conducting pilot and field testing also poses a number of issues, including the problems of drawing nationally representative samples in years in which pilot, field, and operational tests will all occur. Another set of problems relates to inclusion of students with disabilities and accommodations some groups of students, including those of limited English proficiency, may require. How to aggregate data and how to ensure that the VNT has no adverse impact on NAEP and state and local testing are problems that must be resolved. Other technical issues may come to light as the development process moves forward. (Contains 11 references.) (SLD)

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