Crowd-Sourced Online Nexus for Developing Assessments of Middle-School Physical Science Disciplinary Core Ideas

This novel project draws upon teachers to contribute or modify existing test items, then immediately pilots them using crowdsourced subjects. Psychometric analysis generates measures of item quality and then “recycles” items to participating teachers for improvement. In this way, a large test item bank is constructed utilizing teacher input with each item possessing: appropriate reading levels, NGSS alignment, scientific accuracy, appropriate difficulty, high statistical discrimination, and minimal difference by gender, race, or ethnicity. Involvement in this project has potential benefits for teachers lacking formal training in assessment, familiarizing participants with the NGSS, and with the elements of high-quality test development.