Richard M. Luecht, PhD
Department of Educational Research Methodology
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Plenary Paper: Assessment Engineering in Test Design, Development, Assembly, and Scoring

Assessment engineering (AE) is emerging way to approach test design and development that crosses the boundaries between theories of learning and development, test development, and psychometrics. AE is fundamentally about devising principled—that is, replicable and scalable—assessment solutions that control for difficulty and dimensionality.  Simply put, AE dramatically changes how items and performance tasks are developed and how tests are analyzed and scored. This presentation will discuss the five steps in AE: (1) construct mapping and development of evidence models; (2) design of task models and measurement blueprints; (3) developing task templates; (4) item production and test assembly; and (5) psychometric scaling using hierarchical calibration models.  Applications for language assessments and skill-based performance assessments will be discussed and used to illustrate aspects of the AE approach.

Return to Program page.