Services
From initial test design to exam content development, standard setting, test administration, scoring and reporting, as well as all steps in between, Martek Assessments Ltd. will guide and work with your organization in producing a fair, valid, and defensible examination.
Test Development
Developing Test Specifications
Martek Assessments Ltd. has considerable experience working with practitioners in various health professions to develop Examination Test Specifications while addressing the key pillars of Assessment: Transparency, Objectivity, Impartiality, Fairness and Defensibility. Martek Assessments Ltd. facilitates the development of Test Specifications by engaging with representative members of the profession who serve as Subject Matter Experts. The process is guided by a Competency Profile, which is grounded in professional practice, in order to address both the knowledge and task areas deemed relevant to entry level practice.
Item Writing
Dr. Anthony Marini, President of Martek Assessments Ltd., Associate Professor Emeritus, and 3M National Teaching Fellow, has provided training in exam item writing for the past 25 years to the Health Professions as well as University and College Institutions. Utilizing both face to face and combination methods of face to face and virtual item writing approaches, the goals of ensuring effective skill development and the creation of collaborative and sustainable working groups are met. Increasingly, Martek Assessments Ltd. has been encouraging clients to consider the implementation of Writing Circles, which are small groups of writers, typically 3 individuals, who provide feedback to their writing peers on an ongoing basis beginning at the initial stages of item writing through to the final version of the test items.
To help further ensure high quality test items, Martek Assessments Ltd. facilitates item writing review sessions, edits items for technical properties, and provides general proof reading services. Additionally, complete item banking services are available in both English and French. These Item Banking services ensure that issues related to item and exam development, exam assembly, the tracking of item performance statistics, and the secure storage of exam content is effectively addressed.
Planning and Assembling the Examination
Martek Assessment Ltd. offers assistance for item selection and examination assembly to ensure the alignment of each examination to the Test Specifications. Assistance is also available for integrating equating methods into the examinations, selecting items with appropriate psychometric characteristics, the placement and tracking of field test items, working with translators to ensure compatibility of the English and French versions of the examinations, and producing exam masters either for duplication for use in paper pencil examinations or uploading for computer delivered administrations.
Setting the Cut-Score or Pass Score
One of the most critical components of the examination process is the setting of a fair, relevant and defensible passing score. Martek Assessments Ltd. uses widely accepted cut- score setting methodologies that are defensible, transparent, informed by members of the profession and firmly grounded in the expectations of actual practice for entry level candidates.
Exam Scoring
Martek Assessments Ltd. provides an extensive list of services related to examination scoring and statistical analysis to confirm the psychometric integrity of the examination processes. Scoring services are available for paper-pencil examinations, computer delivered examinations as well as OSCE based performance examinations. Martek Assessments Ltd. has provided such services for organizations with as few as 10 candidates to organizations with as many as 2000 candidates.
An extensive item analysis is undertaken for each exam to ensure that all items that contribute to the candidate’s final score reflect the psychometric characteristics required by best practice. As a result of the review, Martek Assessments Ltd. assists the client in determining the final cut-score for the exam and documents the process by which that goal was achieved. Finally, assistance with candidate appeals and the need to undertake any scoring adjustments or confirmation of any scores provided is available.
Performance Reporting
A full range of reporting services are available including individual, group, and where required, institutional performance summaries. For unsuccessful candidates, performance reports are designed to highlight their areas of relative strengths and weaknesses across the competencies or subtopics of the examinations in order to aid their preparation for future reassessment. Explanations to assist the candidate understand and make effective use of the feedback are also provided.
Martek Assessments Ltd. also works with clients in preparing examination reports to various stakeholders and is available to deliver presentations regarding the examination processes and results wherever appropriate.
Quality Assurance
Over the past 20 years, Martek Assessments Ltd. has been very active in assisting Regulatory bodies develop, implement and revise Quality Assurance programs designed to ensure ongoing competency and to help practitioners establish methods for engaging in Continuing Professional Development (CPD). In addition to assisting in the design of relevant and defensible assessment methods, Martek Assessments Ltd. has been instrumental in designing feedback reporting approaches that help practitioners address identified competency gaps and lay the foundation for creating their own approaches to CPD. Finally, as part of CPD, Martek Assessments Ltd. has promoted the concept of Peer Circles, a technique that brings practitioners together to develop problem solving approaches to challenging issues in everyday practice.
In the past, Martek Assessments Ltd. has assisted the following Regulatory bodies with Quality Assurance initiatives: Ontario College of Pharmacists, College of Pharmacists of British Columbia, College of Optometrists of British Columbia, Nova Scotia College of Optometrists, and the Ontario College of Denturists.
Consulting and Workshops
Martek Assessments Ltd. provides half day and full day workshops in a number of areas including Multiple-Choice item writing workshops, Principles of Sound Assessment, Best Practices in designing an Assessment Model, and Strategies for Ensuring the Transparency, Fairness and Defensibility of Assessment approaches.
In addition, Martek Assessments Ltd. is available for consultation to any group seeking information on assessment issues, reporting methods, appeal policies and effectively addressing requests for test accommodations.