Assessing achievement for minimum academic competency. I. Instrument development.

Test instruments for evaluating The American Dietetic Association's Minimum Academic Competencies were developed and tested for four major instructional areas--food, nutrition, nutrition in disease, and management--relevant to professional sciences for general dietetics. The study consisted of four steps: Development of objectives or test criteria; determination of mastery performance standards; test instrument development; and test administration and evaluation. This paper describes procedures used in developing and testing two forms of a criterion-referenced test instrument, which was then administered to determine academic competency of students in dietetics. Salient findings of the test results and evaluation are reported.