Recently the Norwegian Center for Mathematics Education (Matematikksenteret) presented a report on national exams in Mathematics. I remember we had some discussions about questions in some Canadian tests when we met in Banff.
The analysis have three focal points. All the questions checked for how they "cover the goals", "level of difficulty" and "structure, language and context". The report in it self are interesting, but does not explain the negative development of the grade average. The main point as I read parts of the report is that the exams have changed much form year to year with regards to goals covered and the difficulty of the tasks. Generally the structure, language and context should be improved.
This brings us to a document that could be helpful in developing tests and exercises.
Do you have any good strategies to make sure that the test questions are good?
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