Assessment terms beginning with A

This is a measurement glossary, not a general HR glossary. It covers the vocabulary that appears the moment you open a score report or challenge a vendor's claim — reliability, validity, norms, cut scores, item statistics and fairness analysis — because that is the vocabulary buyers are handed without explanation and the one that decides whether a number can carry a decision.

• Adaptive testing

  Also called Computerised adaptive testing, CAT

  Adaptive testing is a test design in which each question is chosen from a calibrated bank on the basis of the answers already given: a correct answer leads to a harder question, an incorrect one to an easier question. It reaches a given level of precision in far fewer items than a fixed test.

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• Adverse impact ratio

  Also called Impact ratio, Selection rate ratio

  The adverse impact ratio is one group's selection rate divided by the selection rate of the group selected most often. A ratio below 0.80 is the threshold at which United States federal enforcement agencies generally treat a selection procedure as showing adverse impact and expect the employer to justify it.

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• Angoff method

  Also called Modified Angoff

  The Angoff method sets a passing score by expert judgement rather than by ranking candidates. A panel estimates, for every question, the probability that a just-barely-qualified candidate would answer it correctly. Those probabilities are averaged across judges and summed across questions, and the total becomes the recommended cut score.

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