In order to reduce teacher bias in the scoring of tests, an outside colleague whited
out the names of the students and other identifying information on tests prior to
evaluation by the teacher. Tests were assigned numbers. The tests were evaluated
based on the scoring guide and rubrics supplied by the FOSSTM teacher’s guide. The
teacher followed strict adherence to the FOSSTM scoring guide’s exact wording and
numerical rating values for consistency. These nominal ratings ranged from a high of
4 on short answer items to a high of 2 on forced-choice items with justification. These
few choices for scoring (4, 3, 2, or 1) with their associated descriptions made scoring
simpler for each item response because of clear differences between few categories. In
addition, a second reviewer checked this scoring for each test to check the teacher’s
adherence to the scoring guide. This helped to ensure greater validity to the scoring.