"Top-Down" Trees of Educational Values

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Abstract
The connection between highest purpose and lowest objective may be visualized as a multi-level hierarchy or tree. Most measurement work emphasizes the actual test item or behavioral objective, but such a "bottom-up" approach is here criticized as uncontrollable. A more feasible "top-down" approach begins with the definition of highest value, here called bentee (for benefit T-score). This measure is a normalized and weighted sum of a profile of test scores. The weighting may be done at each node of the tree for the branches below, by judges selected for authority or expertise. It may be done for a total society, or for specific groups, occupations, or individuals. Such a tree has mathematical properties similar to those for a tree of independent probabilities.

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