Examining the utility of Assessment Literacy Inventory and its portability to education systems in the Asia Pacific region

Abstract

Teachers use assessment to ascertain and enhance student learning, thus the importance of assessment literacy. One of the instruments that has been used to examine teachers’ assessment literacy is the Assessment Literacy Inventory developed by Mertler and Campbell. The Assessment Literacy Inventory has been validated using pre-service teachers and employing traditional statistical techniques. This study reports on the evaluation of the Assessment Literacy Inventory utility using 582 in-service teachers through employing the Rasch model and confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicate that the Assessment Literacy Inventory works well at the item level. However, the Assessment Literacy Inventory seven-factor structure, based on the Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students, poses challenges against newer psychometric techniques. Hence, recommendations are presented. This article concludes with relevant implications for instrument development, educational assessment research, policy and practice, and teachers’ professional development.