I. Eliminating Irrelevant Barriers to the Performance

II. Avoiding Unintended Clues in Objective Test Items

The validity of the assessment may be

undermined by the influence of construct-

irrelevant factors or abilities that are

ancillary to the intent of the assessment.

If students have achieved a particular

learning outcomes, we would want them to

answer correctly those test items that

measure the attainment of that learning

outcome.

Factors, such as complex sentence structure,

difficult vocabulary, and unclear type of

response called for, are extraneous to the

central purpose of the assessment; hence,

they limit and modify the students’ responses

and prevent them from showing their true

levels of achievement.

Possible barriers in test items and assessment

tasks:

Ambiguous statements

Excessive wordiness

Difficult vocabulary

Complex sentence structure

Unclear instructions

Unclear illustrative material

Racial, ethnic, or gender bias

Ways to eliminate irrelevant barriers

Be certain that all students have the prerequisite

skills and abilities (enabling behaviors) needed to

make the response.

Strive for items and tasks that measure

achievement of the specific learning outcomes

and not differences in ancillary abilities.

Avoid ambiguity.

Care should be taken to avoid any racial, ethnic,

or gender bias in preparing the test items and

performance assessment tasks.

Test items should be constructed so that

students obtain the correct answer only if

they have attained the desired learning

outcome.

However, there are factors that enable

students to respond correctly even though

they lack the necessary achievement.

These clues lead the poor achiever to the

correct answer and thereby prevent the

items from functioning as intended.

Common clues in test items

Grammatical inconsistencies

Verbal association

Specific determiners (e.g. always)

Phrasing of correct responses

Length of correct responses

Location of correct responses