School & test engagement
Educators need accurate assessment data to help students learn. But when students rapid-guess or otherwise disengage on tests the validity of scores can be affected. Our research examines the causes of test disengagement, how it relates to students’ overall academic engagement, and its impacts on individual test scores. We look at its effects on aggregated metrics used for school and teacher evaluations, achievement gap studies, and more. This research also explores better ways to measure and improve engagement and to help ensure that test scores more accurately reflect what students know and can do.
The emerging science of test-taking disengagement
Student performance on standardized tests reflects more than just mastery of the material.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, School & test engagement
Can item response times provide insight into students’ motivation and self-efficacy in math
What can we glean about students’ social-emotional learning from how long they spend on math test questions? New research shows promise and limitations of using response time metadata to measure SEL.
Topics: School & test engagement, Math & STEM, Social-emotional learning
Measuring the impact of test disengagement on estimates of educational effectiveness
Learn more about our examination of student disengagement and how it may bias estimates of effectiveness based on observed test results.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, School & test engagement, Student growth & accountability policies
This study investigates whether rapid guessing is a stable trait-like behavior or if rapid guessing is determined mostly by situational variables, and whether rapid guessing over the course of several tests is associated with certain psychological and background measures. We find that rapid guessing tends to be more state-like compared to academic achievement scores, which are fairly stable and that repeated rapid guessing is strongly associated with students’ academic self-efficacy and self-management scores.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, School & test engagement, Social-emotional learning
The impact of test-taking disengagement on item content representation
Rapid-guessing can distort test scores and adversely affect measurement. New research shows how disengaged responses can also distort content representation.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, School & test engagement
Validation and applications of rapid guessing to detect test taker disengagement
The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) together with the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF) and the Centre for International Student Assessment (ZIB) offer an invitation to a three-day workshop on analyzing log file and process data from international large-scale assessments in education. The event will take place as an interactive webinar and online video conference on June 17th – 19th 2020.
Topics: School & test engagement
The impact of test-taking disengagement on item content representation
Rapid-guessing can distort test scores and adversely affect measurement. New research shows how disengaged responses can also distort content representation.
Topics: Measurement & scaling, Innovations in reporting & assessment, School & test engagement
