Richard Woodcock's reduction of twenty years of Rasch measurement into 90 minutes packed with insights and common sense was the highlight of the 15 papers presented at the Midwest Objective Measurement Seminar in Chicago on May 31, 1991. He showed us the beautiful KeyMath Diagnostic Profile, a work of art now discontinued by AGS. There is, however, another masterpiece: the WJ-R "Age/Grade Profile" published by DLM. It is a powerful way of presenting a child's development profile and expected range of mastery.
Many-faceted analysis is proving to be a valuable tool. Donna Tatum continues her tour de force into the evaluation of public speaking. Bonnie Cook is giving museum curators new comprehension of the motivations of their visitors. John Stahl is wrestling with the problem of combining different modes of assessment into one certification decision - a crux of "portfolio assessment". Rosemary Hake is gradually resolving the impasse that provoked international conferences back in the 1930's - how to manage the subjective grading of essays. Anne Fisher is perfecting her deceptively simple technique for picturing measures as moving "rulers" calibrated in tasks, activities, person qualities etc.
Papers discussing particular applications, but often with broad implications, included Patrick Fisher's investigation of baseball talent and Betty Bergstrom's analysis of what happens when a computer- adaptive test exhausts on-target items. Ron Zybura and David Drehmer explained how investigation of misfit can lead to an improved test instrument. The notorious "fourth grade dip" in Chicago reading scores was exposed by Paul Dean as the misleading outcome of inadequate test-equating. Stuart Luppescu decried the sloppy graphical techniques evidenced by many AERA papers.
Teachers also came under the microscope. William Boone compared teachers' perceptions of science items with the items' actual difficulties. Anne Wendt demonstrated that good teachers can overcome bad settings, and Kenneth Frank is identifying teaching styles as a step along the road to school improvement.
Finally, Charles Rost convinced us that our perception of ourselves as left- or right-handed is over-simplified. There is a continuum of handedness, and we are often poor judges of our own position along the continuum.
What you missed at MOMS, J Linacre … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1991, 5:1 p. 137
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