ABSTRACT
Identifying the content of a test designed to measure students’ content knowledge and skills is as much an art as it is a science. The science of content specification draws on conceptual frameworks, mathematical models, and replicable procedures. The art of content specification is based on expert judgments, writing effective test items, and balancing the many tradeoffs that have to be made. This chapter describes in some detail guidelines that can be used for blending the science and the art of test design. Although the intent of explicating some basic guidelines and important issues for content specifications is to make the process more objective, the many refined subtleties that remain ensure that a test designer’s creativity still is crucial. The chapter begins by explaining the importance of articulating clear content specifications rooted in the uniqueness of the content area and of understanding the psychology of learning. This explanation is followed by a discussion of specifying learning expectations or targets. The discussion is greatly influenced by the academic standards movement that has shaped national policies. Critical to standards-based assessment is the importance of alignment between the standards at issue and assessment. The third section of this chapter describes four criteria for
framing test content that were derived from those used for judging the alignment of a test with a set of curriculum standards. The fourth section discusses other factors to be considered in specifying the content for a test. The fifth section explains how carefully crafted content specifications for a test contribute and fit into the more general test specifications. The chapter concludes with an overall summary.
