THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION FROM NAEP - 2 EXAMPLES OF WORK DONE IN COLLABORATION WITH BURSTEIN,LEIGH

This article summarizes two research efforts, both focusing on the mat hematics assessments of the National Assessment of Educational Progres s, that illustrate Leigh Burstein's long-standing concern with the qua lity of information about the condition of education.(1) The first exa mined nonresponse to NAEP test items; it found that omit rates were hi ghest for difficult constructed-response items and that African Americ an and Hispanic students had higher omit rates than Whites. The second study evaluated the validity of the 1992 achievement level descriptio ns as characterizations of mathematics performance; it found that the descriptions and accompanying exemplar items were misleading. In respo nse to these findings, a variety of recommendations were offered perta ining to test construction, standards setting, routine monitoring (and reporting) of data quality, and standards-based reporting of student performance.