The effect of test item familiarization on achievement test scores

One method of constructing test batteries that are used over a range of age or grade levels involves overlapping some of the same items across consecu tive test levels. For example, some items that appear in the last half of a 3rd-grade vocabulary test also appear in the first half of the 4th-grade v ocabulary test. Over consecutive years of testing, do these overlapping ite ms familiarize students with specific test content to such an extent that s tudents become advantaged during subsequent test administrations? Such an a dded advantage, if it exists, would clearly decrease the validity of the su bsequent test scores. In this study, we used both overlapping and nonoverla pping-item conditions, controlled for test content and grade level, and foc used on whether there is an effect on achievement test scores due to item f amiliarization No effects were detected.