Identification, development, validation, and dissemination of written exam items for the Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Order (AgHOs) Certification Training Program
Abstract
Research has been conducted to develop and validate a pool of exam items that can be used to test the readiness of youth, ages 14-15 years old, to be certified under the current federally mandated Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Order (AgHOs) contained within Title 29, Part 570, Subpart E-1 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Training is required prior to employment in agricultural workplaces that Congress determined are especially hazardous for youth within the prescribed age range. Under the current provisions of the AgHOs certification process, participants are required to successfully pass a written exam covering safe work practices as partial satisfaction to receive certification of eligibility for employment to complete certain tasks. However, the regulations provide little guidance concerning the format of the exam, subject matter to be covered, degree of difficulty, or minimum passing score. As part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sponsored Hazardous Occupations Safety Training in Agriculture (HOSTA) initiative, efforts have been made to develop consistent and evidence-based testing strategies, and methods for disseminating the test protocols to instructors. The goal was to expand, enhance, and maintain the reliability of the item pool for the AgHOs certification process. Item development was based on the HOSTA supported Gearing Up for Safety – Production Agriculture Safety Training for Youth (Gearing Up) curriculum. It was determined that the current item pool should be expanded to include a minimum of two test items for each of the 157cognitive based desired core competencies that were developed as part of the Gearing Up curriculum design process. Resulting from this research project to expand and maintain a pool of exam items were six major accomplishments: (1) Twelve item writing guidelines were identified for establishing AgHOs exam items, (2) One hundred seventy-four (174) preexisting items that met the learning outcomes of the Gearing Up curriculum were identified using the twelve guidelines, (3) One hundred-forty (140) new items were developed, (4) Validity evidence was collected to support the use of the 314 identified and newly developed items in the pool through an (a) item-competency alignment process using Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and (b) empirical item analysis in which 16 instructors administered a 70 item exam generated from the pool of 314 items to 568 students across the U.S, (5) The pool of 314 evidence-based items and 53 previously validated items were made available to instructors of AgHOs certification training programs, and (6) Guidelines for item pool maintenance were proposed concluding this project.
Degree
M.S.A.B.E.
Advisors
Field, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Educational tests & measurements|Agricultural education|Agricultural engineering
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