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RTD Core Principles

RTD Theory of the Item

RTD's Small Theory of Evidence

RTD Central Tenet/Mantra

RTD Tools & Packets

RTD Core Principles

RTD Pillar Practices

RTD Process Packets

Content & Cognition Traits

Item Alignment Examination

Radical Empathy

About Standardized Assessment

What is a Standardized Test?

Why Do We Need Standardized Tests?

The Importance of Purpose

What Standardized Tests Ain't Good For

How Standardized Tests Are Made

Assessment Explanations

Alignment & Validity

The Platinum Standard

Cognitive Complexity

Construct Isolation and Authenticity

Evidence Centered Design

RTD's ECD Glossary

Assessment Glossary

RTD Core Principles

RTD Theory of the Item

RTD's Small Theory of Evidence

RTD Central Tenet/Mantra

RTD Tools & Packets

RTD Core Principles

RTD Pillar Practices

RTD Process Packets

Content & Cognition Traits

Item Alignment Examination

Radical Empathy

About Standardized Assessment

What is a Standardized Test?

Why Do We Need Standardized Tests?

The Importance of Purpose

What Standardized Tests Ain't Good For

How Standardized Tests Are Made

Assessment Explanations

Alignment & Validity

The Platinum Standard

Cognitive Complexity

Construct Isolation and Authenticity

Evidence Centered Design

RTD's ECD Glossary

Assessment Glossary

Folder: About RTD

RTD Core Principles

RTD Theory of the Item

RTD's Small Theory of Evidence

RTD Central Tenet/Mantra

Folder: RTD Tools & Packets

RTD Core Principles

RTD Pillar Practices

RTD Process Packets

Content & Cognition Traits

Item Alignment Examination

Radical Empathy

Folder: About Standardized Assessment

What is a Standardized Test?

Why Do We Need Standardized Tests?

The Importance of Purpose

What Standardized Tests Ain't Good For

How Standardized Tests Are Made

Folder: Assessment Explanations

Alignment & Validity

The Platinum Standard

Cognitive Complexity

Construct Isolation and Authenticity

Evidence Centered Design

RTD's ECD Glossary

Assessment Glossary

Rigorous Test Development

Item-centric and validity-focused test development

The RTD Mantra —

Valid items elicit evidence of the targeted cognition for the range of typical test takers.

The Rigorous Test Development Project

The RTD (Rigorous Test Development) project is an attempt to build a professionalized content development practice that focuses on individual item quality, particularly by leaning into the importance of validity throughout the content development process. It assumes that content development professionals develop professional judgment that can be raised, honed and calibrated by providing frameworks and clarifying expectations in ways that account for the constraints and demands of typical practice within test development, today.

The RTD logo (to the right) is of a fox emerging from a black box. We use a black box because the field of educational measurment has treated content development work as a black box that it has no interest in looking inside. We use a fox because item development requires diving into detail and ambiguity with a variety of tools, rather than just using a single tool or lens—mantra not withstanding.

© 2018-2023. All products of the Rigorous Test Development Project, including this website, this website, are the property of Marjorie P. Wine and Alexander M. Hoffman.