Al-Hikmah University Journal

This study investigated effects of treatment on teachers’ test development, construction, and item writing competence in public Senior Secondary Schools in Jigawa state.  It also determined the effects of treatment on teachers’ knowledge of basic concepts and procedures in test construction, analysis and interpretation of test scores for effective classroom learning. This is with a view to improve the validity of achievement tests used in secondary schools. A three-group experimental design was adopted and used in the study. The population comprised all male and female teachers in the employment of Jigawa state government. 400 teachers who have spent five years and above in active teaching in public Senior Secondary Schools in the state constituted the sample in the study. Three self-developed research instruments were used to collect data. These are: “Test Development Questionnaire (TDQ); Item Writing Questionnaire (ITQ), and Impact Assessment Questionnaire (IAQ)”. Data collected were analysed using One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Fisher’s Protected t-test statistics. The results revealed a significant effect of treatment on teachers’ test development, construction, and item writing competence in Senior Secondary Schools in Jigawa state. Also, there was a significant effect of treatment on teachers’ knowledge of basic concepts and procedures in test development, construction, and item writing in Senior Secondary Schools in Jigawa state. There was a significant effect of treatment on teachers’ competence on test analysis and interpretation of test scores for effective classroom learning. It was concluded that improving teachers’ test development competence will enhance both validity and equity in testing in secondary schools in the country. Thus, teachers need to possess relevant test construction and development competencies to be able to deliver quality assessment of students in their various subjects’ area of specializations.