Conclusions

The placement survey, though not perfect by any means, did seem to provide enough information about what is happening in various language programs around the country to give some direction as to the types of issues that should be covered in the placement handbook. Because teachers seem to be the people mainly responsible for the creation, administration, and evaluation of placement tests, it would make sense for the handbook to target that population rather than testing professionals (though the two are by no means mutually exclusive). This means that the handbook should provide basic information about general testing issues, such as reliability and validity, while also giving nuts and bolts instruction in item writing and item analysis. It is also possible to also have one or more sections of the manual devoted to slightly more technical issues for those teachers or administrators who have measurement experience. Because programs tend to test multiple skills, issues specific to the testing of those skills, such as the use of raters, need to be addressed. Also, as many programs expressed interest in computer based testing, issues pertaining to different test formats will need to be discussed, though the technical details of computerized assessment is probably beyond the scope of this manual.

Given those general parameters, a potential outline of handbook sections or chapters is presented below.

As the manual begins to take shape, it might be useful to follow-up with some of the programs that responded to the survey to get detailed information on how actual programs are dealing with some of the issues raised in the handbook.