1. I. Eliminating Irrelevant Barriers to the Performance
II. Avoiding Unintended Clues in Objective Test Items

2.  The validity of the assessment may be
undermined by the influence of construct-
irrelevant factors or abilities that are
ancillary to the intent of the assessment.
 Ifstudents have achieved a particular
learning outcomes, we would want them to
answer correctly those test items that
measure the attainment of that learning
outcome.

3.  Factors, such as complex sentence structure,
difficult vocabulary, and unclear type of
response called for, are extraneous to the
central purpose of the assessment; hence,
they limit and modify the students’ responses
and prevent them from showing their true
levels of achievement.

4.  Possible barriers in test items and assessment
tasks:
 Ambiguous statements
 Excessive wordiness
 Difficult vocabulary
 Complex sentence structure
 Unclear instructions
 Unclear illustrative material
 Racial, ethnic, or gender bias

5.  Ways to eliminate irrelevant barriers
 Be certain that all students have the prerequisite
skills and abilities (enabling behaviors) needed to
make the response.
 Strive for items and tasks that measure
achievement of the specific learning outcomes
and not differences in ancillary abilities.
 Avoid ambiguity.
 Care should be taken to avoid any racial, ethnic,
or gender bias in preparing the test items and
performance assessment tasks.

6.  Test items should be constructed so that
students obtain the correct answer only if
they have attained the desired learning
outcome.
 However, there are factors that enable
students to respond correctly even though
they lack the necessary achievement.
 These clues lead the poor achiever to the
correct answer and thereby prevent the
items from functioning as intended.

7.  Common clues in test items
 Grammatical inconsistencies
 Verbal association
 Specific determiners (e.g. always)
 Phrasing of correct responses
 Length of correct responses
 Location of correct responses