The Nevada State Testing Program involves many different types and styles of assessment. There are the norm-referenced exam (ITBS), the criterion-referenced exam (Grades 3 – 8 Nevada CRT’s), the writing proficiency exam (Grades 5 and 8), the High School Proficiency Exam (reading, math and writing) and occasionally the national exam (NAEP). Today, however, I would like to focus only on our Nevada State CRT’s and how the various items are developed.

       The entire procedure of developing and getting an item to be scored on the Nevada CRT takes three years for full implementation. The process begins with an item development committee meeting held annually in Reno during the summer months. We are fortunate to have Nevada teachers do the initial development of our test items. During the item development meetings, teachers from around Nevada write the items in teams of nine teachers per each grade level. These teams of nine teachers are composed of four Clark County school teachers, three Washoe County school teachers and two teachers from any of the fifteen rural school districts to reflect the population demographics of our state. The team is selected by an oversight committee from the Nevada Department of Education and WESTED, our development contractor, to comprise of teachers with various levels of experience, their ability to offer professional development to their local areas and to match the state demographics. The item development teams meet for three days to write and edit questions for their specific grade levels. All participants receive half-day training on the specific guidelines of test development and then spend the rest of the time writing test items in teams of two or solo.  In both 2006 and 2007 we had a great response for working on these committees. The last two years we have turned away over 100 potential applicants for this committee work each year. Unfortunately, in Washoe County we have had a poor turnout for writers in the 3rd through 5th grades. Please see members of your NNMC board for further information on participating in 2008.

       Once the item is written by the committee of teachers the question is sent to WESTED, out test development contractor, for further editing and clean-up per the Nevada Style Guide. WESTED will do at least five rounds of editing on the item and then sets the item on to the formal item card for review by the both the content review team and bias committee. The content review team is composed of five Nevada teachers, which review the item for the following three key components: Is the content code on the item a strong alignment to the standard? Is the ability code on the item a correct alignment to the code definition? Is the item written for the appropriate grade level? The content review team of five teachers is designed with two experienced item writers and three new test developers. Like the item development team, this group is formed with Nevada teachers from around the state using the following formula: two Clark County teachers, one Washoe County teacher and two teachers from any of the fifteen rural school districts. The content review team meets to review these items one year after the original item has been written. One month after the content review team has met to discuss the item the comments from the content review committee are analyzed by a team of content specialists from the Nevada Department of Education and WESTED.  Any changes to the item are then completed and WESTED prepares the item booklet for the bias committees review.

       The bias committee team is composed of thirty people from throughout Nevada that match the demographics of the state and represent, parents, teachers, business, government and higher education around our state. This team is charged with the task of reviewing the items for any concern of bias in the areas of religion, gender, ethnicity and access for our Nevada students. If an item does not meet the approval of this committee the item is sent back to the item writing team the next year for revisions or the item is destroyed. After the bias review the final edits are done on the item and the item is ready to be placed in the item pool for field testing in the coming year.

       The CRT’s are administered in the spring of each year. In third grade the students answer 60 math questions, in 4th and 5th they answer 64 math questions, in 6th – 8th they respond to 69 questions and on the high school proficiency exam they answer 75 questions. In each of these grades the students will have 15 items, which are being field tested to see if the item response is appropriate for testing. These items do not count toward the score for the student. The field test items are scattered throughout the test to see how the item scores. In each of the grades, except high school there are six versions of the exam as well. In high school there are tem versions.  This allows for enough of the field test items to be scored each year. The item is checked for an adequate passing rate, and checked for any problems in gender or ethnic specific scoring data. If the items clear this last hurdle then the item is finally ready for use on the test the next year to determine the score for the students, school, and district and state data files. Most items, once they are on the “live” test are used only for about two to three years and then added to the test bank. Thus the Nevada students are the final review in this test development process.

       We have now completed the cycle for the development of a test item on the Nevada state CRT’s. During item development about 120 items are written each year per grade level. By the time the item has cleared all the edits, and committee reviews, and finally the field test cycle about 75 of the original 120 are placed in the actual test bank. The Nevada Department of Education has been able to successfully maintain this model of using Nevada teachers in the initial creation of the test items. However, due to ever increasing costs to develop the exam there had been discussion of removing this layer and just using a vendor created test bank. It is through a combined effort of teachers and content specialists in the department we have been able to keep Nevada teachers on the front lines of the test development process. Thanks to the continued support of teachers from around Nevada the process described above is alive and well. We know that the above described steps will be in effect through at least the 2010 administration of the exams. Hopefully, this walk through the development of the Nevada State test has been of some assistance in understanding part of the Nevada Testing Process. If you have further questions or areas that need clarification please feel free to contact David J. Brancamp at dbrancamp@doe.nv.gov .