Scientific validity? Prove it.

Since the advent of NCLB and its requirement that assessments be scientifically valid, there has been a lot of confusion over what constitutes scientific validity. The PASeries development team, however, has not been confused at all. PASeries test item creation and assessment form construction followed the same principles and practices used in the construction of high-stakes assessments.

Now with the release of the PASeries Reading Technical Manual, the scientific basis of the PASeries assessments can be shown. What is a technical manual? It is what many formative assessment products lack; it is a document that outlines the rigorous practices used in the creation of the assessments. It also provides data on field test results, scaling, scoring, reporting, and construction of the forecasting methods.

Don't know your Rasch Ability Estimate from your Bayesian Paradigm? Well, then the PASeries Reading Technical Manual is probably not for you. However, if your inner psychometrician is begging to know how uncertainty for an individual is calculated, or how growth rate is modeled as a decreasing function of current ability; then the PASeries Reading Technical Manual is just what you have been looking for.

To obtain your copy of the PASeries Reading Technical Manual, contact your Pearson NCS or Pearson Educational Measurement representative, fill out the contact form on the PASeries Web site at PearsonPASeries.com, or call the PASeries customer service line at 888-281-8443.

PASeries at Education Users' Conference

The Pearson 9th Annual Education Users' Conference in the Orlando area Nov 2-4 will feature PASeries in a couple of indirect ways. In general, the conference provides a great venue for educators and administrators to get informal continuing education on a variety of trends and topics.

Dr. Jon Twing, noted psychometrician and co-author of the TrueScores blog (not to mention namesake of the PASeries mascot), will present on "The Usefulness of Formative Assessments in Statewide Accountability Assessments." Jon is always a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker. He's scheduled for Thursday morning.

Lexile fans (and there are many out there) can find out more about the basis of Lexiles -- and the new Quantile Framework for Mathematics -- in the session, "The Lexile Framework for Reading and the Quantile Framework for Mathematics: Bridging the Gap Between Instruction and Assessment." This two-hour session on Thursday afternoon will go in depth on the industry-standard Lexile measures for reading ability, the new companion Quantile measures for mathematics achievement, and how to tie what measures show to classroom instruction. Needless to say, both Lexiles and Quantiles are standard in PASeries.

To find out more about the Education Users' Conference, or to register, visit the conference site here.