Table of Specifications

1 The SAGE Encyclopedia of EducationalResearch, Measurement, and EvaluationTable of SpecificationsContributors: Helenrose Fives & Nicole BarnesEdited by: Bruce B. FreyBook Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement, and EvaluationChapter Title: " Table of Specifications "Pub. Date: 2018 Access Date: April 19, 2018 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, : Thousand Oaks,Print ISBN: 9781506326153 Online ISBN: 9781506326139 DOI: pages: 1655-1657 2018 SAGE Publications, All Rights PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination ofthe online version will vary from the pagination of the print Table of Specifications (TOS) is a tool used to ensure that a test or assessment measuresthe content and thinking skills that the test intends to measure.

2 Thus, when usedappropriately, it can provide response content and construct ( , response process) validityevidence. A TOS may be used for large-scale test construction, classroom-level assessmentsby teachers, and psychometric scale development. It is a foundational tool in designing testsor measures for research and educational primary purpose of a TOS is to ensure alignment between the items or elements of anassessment and the content, skills, or constructs that the assessment intends to assess. Thatis, a TOS helps test constructors to focus on issue of response content, ensuring that the testor assessment measures what it intends to measure. For example, if a teacher is interested inassessing the students understanding of lunar phases, then it would be appropriate to havea test item asking them to draw the phases of the moon .

3 However, a test item asking them toidentify the first person to walk on the moon would not have the same content validity toassess students knowledge of lunar addition, a TOS can also be used to provide response process validity evidence for testconstructors. Response process refers to the kind of thinking that is expected of the test takerin completing the assessment. For the lunar phases, for example, a teacher may expectstudents to memorize the phases of the moon and therefore a knowledge-level (relying onrecognition or memory) question would be appropriate. Alternatively, if the teacher taught thelessons such that students tracked the moon for a month, developed lunar journals, anddiscussed the reasons for the different phases, then the assessment should target higherlevel thinking such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.

4 As such, asking students to draw amodel of the lunar phases with annotated explanations would be better aligned to the kind ofthinking that students experienced during TOS is typically constructed as a Table that includes key information to help teachersalign the learning objectives that represent the content and cognitive levels intended forstudents to achieve with class time spent and the number of test items. Table 1 provides anexample of a TOS for a chapter test on New Ideas for a New Century, from Molefi KeteAsante s (1995) African American History: A Journey of Liberation. This entry explored theroles of prominent African American leaders from 1895 to 1919. Before constructing the TOS,the teacher decided the total number of items to include ( , 10) and quantity and type ofthose items ( , five multiple-choice and five short answers), and the decision was madebased on the time allocated for students to complete the test and students general test-taking abilities.

5 Next, the teacher referred to the lesson plans and notes to determine thecontent in columns A C ( , day, learning objectives, time spent on objective). To calculatethe percentage of class time for each objective (column D), the teacher divided the minutesspent teaching each objective (column C) by the total minutes for the unit and multiplied by100. Determining the percentage of time spent in class on each objective is one approach toidentifying how many items on the test should address any particular objective and enhancestest content validity , the teacher multiplied the percentage of time on topic (column D) by the total number ofitems on the test (10) to determine the number of items needed to measure each that the teacher rounded to whole numbers when appropriate. In some instances (seeObjective 4), none of the test items was used to assess that objective.

6 In other words, notenough instructional time was spent teaching that content to justify assessing it on the unittest. Column F shows the classification whether each objective measured lower or higherSAGESAGE ReferenceCopyright 2018 by SAGE Publications, SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement,and EvaluationPage 2 of 4 order thinking processes. Lower level thinking processes require students to remember orunderstand, whereas higher level thinking processes requires students to apply, analyze,synthesize, and evaluate. Finally, with the information in columns E and F, the teacherdetermines the information in column G. Recall that prior to TOS construction, the teacherdecided that both multiple-choice and short-answer items would be distributed evenly. Theteacher used knowledge of the content and cognitive level along with professional judgmentto determine the best one for each 1 Table of Specifications : New Ideas for a New Century UnitSee also Alignment Bloom s Taxonomy Classroom Assessment Construct-Related ValidityEvidence Content-Related Validity Evidence Curriculum-Based Assessment InstructionalObjectives Item Analysis Multiple-Choice Items Standards-Based Assessment Tests ValidityHelenrose Fives Nicole ReadingsBarnes, N.

7 , & Dacey, C. M (in press). Using traditional assessments to effectively inform yourteaching. In J. Grinberg & D. Schwarzer (Eds.), Successful teaching: What every noviceteacher needs to know. Rowman & , N. C., Fives, H., & Krause, E. (2013). Using a Table of Specifications toimprove teacher constructed traditional tests: An experimental design. Assessment inEducation: Principles, Policy, and Practice, 21(1), 90 : , H., & DiDonato-Barnes, N. C. (2013). Classroom test construction: The power of a tableof Specifications . Practical, Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 18(1). Retrieved , C. E., Zuelke, D. C., Wilson, J. D., & Yunker, B. D. (2004). The Table of Specifications :Insuring accountability in teacher made tests. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 31,SAGESAGE ReferenceCopyright 2018 by SAGE Publications, SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement,and EvaluationPage 3 of 4 115 ReferenceCopyright 2018 by SAGE Publications, SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement,and EvaluationPage 4 of 4