Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - D1120014
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED339710 AUTHOR: House, Ernest R.; Lawrence, Nancy
TITLE: Report on Content Definition Process in Social
Studies Testing.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1990
NOTE: 36 p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Educational Research Association (San Francisco,
CA, March 27-31, 1989).
AVAILABILITY: CSE Dissemination Office, UCLA Graduate
School of Education, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
90024 1521.
ABSTRACT: This content assessment project is designed to
determine what social studies content should be tested on
national standardized tests and how that content should be
defined. Sixteen historians, political scientists, and
social studies educators were interviewed to identify key
concepts. In a second phase, the cultural literacy
rationale for content was examined. This report focuses on
the third phase, which addressed the actual content
definition process. A fourth phase will make content
recommendations. To investigate the process, test
developers were interviewed. Altogether, 10 people involved
in test construction for the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP), history and social studies
tests, and a state assessment were interviewed. Overall, a
relatively small number of people define actual content;
many of the same people, not necessarily subject matter
specialists, work on several tests. The NAEP uses a small
committee, with checks from various reviewers. The
commercial test developer relies heavily on widely used
tests, and the state process relies on the input of many
people. For the most part, these processes do not produce
the same content. Consideration is given by the test
developers to issues of regionality, ethnicity, gender, and
race; it would seem that the same consideration should be
given by subject matter specialists to test content. There
are seven references. Three appendices discuss the
interview process and the content domains of the tests.
(SLD)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: High-Schools; History-; Interviews-;
Surveys-; Test-Construction; Testing-Programs;
Test-Validity
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Content-Analysis; *National-Programs;
*Social-Studies; *Standardized-Tests; *Test-Content
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