Purpose The readability and comprehensibility of Learner's Permit Knowledge Test practice questions and the relationship with test failure rates across states and the District of Columbia were examined. Method Failure rates were obtained from department representatives. Practice test questions were extracted from drivers' manuals and department websites and examined for readability using Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and comprehensibility using Question Understanding Aid. The influence of readability and comprehensibility on test failure rates was explored. Results The average failure rate from reporting jurisdictions was 42.76%. In total, 11 out of 28 jurisdictions reported that test takers fail more than half the time, while 25 out of 28 reported that test takers fail at least a quarter of the time. While 33.09% of the variability in failure rates could be accounted for by syntactic complexity of the questions, 54.18% could be accounted for by the reading ease. Discussion With few exceptions, test failure rates are systematically high across the United States. The current findings suggest that these tests may be inappropriately biased against individuals with lower levels of literacy and language ability. Implications for test developers and clinicians are discussed.

中文翻译：

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在学习者的许可知识测验中检验实践测验问题的可读性和可理解性与失败率之间的关系。

目的研究了学习者许可证知识测试实践问题的可读性和可理解性，以及各州和哥伦比亚特区与测试失败率的关系。方法失效率是从部门代表那里获得的。从驾驶员手册和部门网站中提取了实践测试问题，并使用Flesch-Kincaid成绩等级检查了其可读性，并使用了“问题理解援助”来对其理解性进行了检查。探索了可读性和可理解性对测试失败率的影响。结果报告辖区的平均失败率为42.76％。总计，在28个辖区中，有11个报告考生的失败率超过一半，而在28个辖区中，有25个报告考生的失败率至少为四分之一。而33。失败率变异性的09％可能是由于问题的句法复杂性造成的，而54.18％的原因是阅读的难易程度。讨论几乎没有例外，全美国的测试失败率一直很高。当前的调查结果表明，这些测试可能对读写能力和语言能力较低的个人造成不适当的偏见。讨论了对测试开发人员和临床医生的影响。