This interactive workshop will provide an introduction to the core principles of psychometrics and exam development, including the phases of exam development, their purpose, and their importance; item writing best practices; test administration consideration; and basic psychometric analyses that can be used to demonstrate the validity, reliability, and fairness of items and exams.

The session will begin with an overview of exam design principles, including defining test purpose, conducting job analyses (or similar), and developing test blueprints. Participants will then delve into item development, learning several best practices for writing multiple-choice and constructed-response items.

Next, the workshop will cover best practices in test administration, including considerations for accessibility and accommodations. Finally, attendees will be introduced to foundational psychometric concepts such as reliability, validity, item difficulty, discrimination indices, and basic item and test-level statistics.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe the key phases of exam development and their importance.
• Apply principles of effective item writing to create high-quality assessment items.
• Understand the importance of building accessibility into these experiences.
• Interpret basic psychometric statistics to evaluate item and test performance.
• Recognize the role of psychometrics in supporting fair, valid, and reliable assessments.

No prior experience in psychometrics is required. This session is ideal for new to the world of testing and assessment and for those who want a refresher on the basics.