The vision is broken into goals that are subsequently grouped into objectives. Along the way the state, district, principal and or educator must determine the best method or methods to use in the assessment of student achievement and the elements of the course. Such assessment seeks to gain an understanding of the effect the learning experience has had on the learner s thinking process. Methods of assessing such thinking hold varying degrees of authenticity, feasibility, validity and reliability. No child in the mainstream educational system makes his or her way through school without completing hundreds of such official and practice assessments.
American students are the most frequently tested and least often examined students in the world.
The question stated above seeks to determine whether the presence of certain types of test item distracters at the beginning of standardized criterion referenced tests actually impede the learner s ability to successfully recall learned algorithms for tested instructional objectives consequently distorting the assessment instrument s ability to accurately measure a learner s understanding or potential to reconstruct his or her learning. It seems clear that a valid measure of achievement needs to consider information from wrong as well as from correct responses. Therefore quality distracters are not only educationally beneficial but also increase a test item s ability to discriminate between learners of varying degrees of understanding. The question put forth here is whether such distracters actually inhibit a learner s ability to accurately recall algorithms from prior instruction. These statements speak to the learner s propensity to modify presented treatment or instruction.