Innovations in reporting & assessment
Emerging technologies allow for a variety of methods to assess students and report data specific to the needs of different stakeholders. These various approaches can result in assessments that are more engaging for students, along with reporting that provides more insightful, useful information for students, families, and educators.
This paper briefly discusses the trade-offs involved in making such a transition, and then focuses on a relatively unexplored benefit of computer-based tests – the control of construct-irrelevant factors that can threaten test score validity.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, School & test engagement
This manuscript reports results from two studies conducted during the development of KinderTEK, an iPad delivered kindergarten mathematics intervention, to determine the relationship between instructor-reported technology experience and intervention implementation, as measured by student use.
A general approach to measuring test-taking effort on computer-based tests
The current study outlines a general process for measuring item-level effort that can be applied to an expanded set of item types and test-taking behaviors (such as omitted or constructed responses). This process, which is illustrated with data from a large-scale assessment program, should improve our ability to detect non-effortful test taking and perform individual score validation.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, Student growth & accountability policies
Rapid‐guessing behavior: Its identification, interpretation, and implications
The rise of computer‐based testing has brought with it the capability to measure more aspects of a test event than simply the answers selected or constructed by the test taker. One behavior that has drawn much research interest is the time test takers spend responding to individual multiple‐choice items.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, School & test engagement
Are all biases bad? Collaborative grounded theory in developmental evaluation of education policy
Modeling student test-taking motivation in the context of an adaptive achievement test
This study examined the utility of response time‐based analyses in understanding the behavior of unmotivated test takers. For the data from an adaptive achievement test, patterns of observed rapid‐guessing behavior and item response accuracy were compared to the behavior expected under several types of models that have been proposed to represent unmotivated test taking behavior.
Topics: Innovations in reporting & assessment, Measurement & scaling, School & test engagement
Response time as an indicator of test taker speed: assumptions meet reality
The growing presence of computer-based testing has brought with it the capability to routinely capture the time that test takers spend on individual test items. This, in turn, has led to an increased interest in potential applications of response time in measuring intellectual ability and achievement. Goldhammer (this issue) provides a very useful overview of much of the research in this area, and he provides a thoughtful analysis of the speed-ability trade-off and its impact on measurement.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, School & test engagement
