Keeping Scores: Audited Self-Monitoring of High-Stakes Testing Environments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Padilla, Raymond; Richards, Michael
2006-01-01
To address a public relations problem faced by a large urban public school district in Texas, we conducted action research that resulted in an audited self-monitoring system for high-stakes testing environments. The system monitors violations of testing protocols while identifying and disseminating best practices to improve the education of…
IQ Scores Should Be Corrected for the Flynn Effect in High-Stakes Decisions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fletcher, Jack M.; Stuebing, Karla K.; Hughes, Lisa C.
2010-01-01
IQ test scores should be corrected for high stakes decisions that employ these assessments, including capital offense cases. If scores are not corrected, then diagnostic standards must change with each generation. Arguments against corrections, based on standards of practice, information present and absent in test manuals, and related issues,…
Establishing Inter- and Intrarater Reliability for High-Stakes Testing Using Simulation.
Kardong-Edgren, Suzan; Oermann, Marilyn H; Rizzolo, Mary Anne; Odom-Maryon, Tamara
This article reports one method to develop a standardized training method to establish the inter- and intrarater reliability of a group of raters for high-stakes testing. Simulation is used increasingly for high-stakes testing, but without research into the development of inter- and intrarater reliability for raters. Eleven raters were trained using a standardized methodology. Raters scored 28 student videos over a six-week period. Raters then rescored all videos over a two-day period to establish both intra- and interrater reliability. One rater demonstrated poor intrarater reliability; a second rater failed all students. Kappa statistics improved from the moderate to substantial agreement range with the exclusion of the two outlier raters' scores. There may be faculty who, for different reasons, should not be included in high-stakes testing evaluations. All faculty are content experts, but not all are expert evaluators.
Why Has High-Stakes Testing So Easily Slipped into Contemporary American Life?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Berliner, David C.
2008-01-01
High-stakes testing is the practice of attaching important consequences to standardized test scores, and it is the engine that drives the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The rationale for high-stakes testing is that the promise of rewards and the threat of punishments will cause teachers to work more effectively, students to be more motivated,…
High-Stakes Testing: Too Much? Too Soon?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Walker, Sherry Freeland, Ed.
2000-01-01
This theme issue focuses on the use and consequences of high stakes tests. The lead article, "High-Stakes Testing: Too Much? Too Soon?" by Sherry Freeland Walker, introduces the topic and related issues, outlining the pros and cons of high stakes testing by the states. The problem, some experts say, is that states have tried to do too much too…
High-Stakes Collaborative Testing: Why Not?
Levine, Ruth E; Borges, Nicole J; Roman, Brenda J B; Carchedi, Lisa R; Townsend, Mark H; Cluver, Jeffrey S; Frank, Julia; Morey, Oma; Haidet, Paul; Thompson, Britta M
2018-01-01
Phenomenon: Studies of high-stakes collaborative testing remain sparse, especially in medical education. We explored high-stakes collaborative testing in medical education, looking specifically at the experiences of students in established and newly formed teams. Third-year psychiatry students at 5 medical schools across 6 sites participated, with 4 participating as established team sites and 2 as comparison team sites. For the collaborative test, we used the National Board of Medical Examiners Psychiatry subject test, administering it via a 2-stage process. Students at all sites were randomly selected to participate in a focus group, with 8-10 students per site (N = 49). We also examined quantitative data for additional triangulation. Students described a range of heightened emotions around the collaborative test yet perceived it as valuable regardless if they were in established or newly formed teams. Students described learning about the subject matter, themselves, others, and interpersonal dynamics during collaborative testing. Triangulation of these results via quantitative data supported these themes. Insights: Despite student concerns, high-stakes collaborative tests may be both valuable and feasible. The data suggest that high-stakes tests (tests of learning or summative evaluation) could also become tests for learning or formative evaluation. The paucity of research into this methodology in medical education suggests more research is needed.
The Effects of High-Stakes Testing Policy on Arts Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baker, Richard A., Jr.
2012-01-01
This study examined high-stakes test scores for 37,222 eighth grade students enrolled in music and/or visual arts classes and those students not enrolled in arts courses. Students enrolled in music had significantly higher mean scores than those not enrolled in music (p less than 0.001). Results for visual arts and dual arts were not as…
The Effect of Stakes on Accountability Test Scores and Pass Rates
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Steedle, Jeffrey T.; Grochowalski, Joseph
2017-01-01
Students may not fully demonstrate their knowledge and skills on accountability tests if there are no stakes attached to individual performance. In that case, assessment results may not accurately reflect student achievement, so the validity of score interpretations and uses suffers. For this study, matched samples of students taking state…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schaffhauser, Dian
2011-01-01
For decades the No. 2 pencil and bubble sheet have ruled the student assessment process. The time has finally come to move all of those important tests online. High-stakes computer-based testing has been around for more than 10 years, with some states eagerly embracing it and others avoiding it like whooping cough. But the advent of national…
Motivating High School Students to Score Proficient on State Tests
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brown, Sarah Lee
2015-01-01
The researcher interviewed two groups of eleventh grade students, in a rural Appalachian setting, who tended to score low on the state mandated high stakes/low stakes test to discover their efforts on the test, specifically in reading, and to obtain their opinions concerning the effects of a specific incentive or consequence. Before the eleventh…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Goldberg, Mark F.
2004-01-01
Tests are a natural part of education, from the quizzes, essays, and classroom tests that teachers have traditionally administered to the high-stakes tests that states use to make decisions about graduation, promotion, and school funding and governance. In this article, the author stresses the need to learn the unintended consequences of…
Simzar, Rahila M; Martinez, Marcela; Rutherford, Teomara; Domina, Thurston; Conley, AnneMarie M
2015-04-01
This study uses data from an urban school district to examine the relation between students' motivational beliefs about mathematics and high- versus low-stakes math test performance. We use ordinary least squares and quantile regression analyses and find that the association between students' motivation and test performance differs based on the stakes of the exam. Students' math self-efficacy and performance avoidance goal orientation were the strongest predictors for both exams; however, students' math self-efficacy was more strongly related to achievement on the low-stakes exam. Students' motivational beliefs had a stronger association at the low-stakes exam proficiency cutoff than they did at the high-stakes passing cutoff. Lastly, the negative association between performance avoidance goals and high-stakes performance showed a decreasing trend across the achievement distribution, suggesting that performance avoidance goals are more detrimental for lower achieving students. These findings help parse out the ways motivation influences achievement under different stakes.
Simzar, Rahila M.; Martinez, Marcela; Rutherford, Teomara; Domina, Thurston; Conley, AnneMarie M.
2016-01-01
This study uses data from an urban school district to examine the relation between students’ motivational beliefs about mathematics and high- versus low-stakes math test performance. We use ordinary least squares and quantile regression analyses and find that the association between students’ motivation and test performance differs based on the stakes of the exam. Students’ math self-efficacy and performance avoidance goal orientation were the strongest predictors for both exams; however, students’ math self-efficacy was more strongly related to achievement on the low-stakes exam. Students’ motivational beliefs had a stronger association at the low-stakes exam proficiency cutoff than they did at the high-stakes passing cutoff. Lastly, the negative association between performance avoidance goals and high-stakes performance showed a decreasing trend across the achievement distribution, suggesting that performance avoidance goals are more detrimental for lower achieving students. These findings help parse out the ways motivation influences achievement under different stakes. PMID:27840563
Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Berliner, David C.
2007-01-01
Drawing on their extensive research, Nichols and Berliner document and categorize the ways that high-stakes testing threatens the purposes and ideals of the American education system. For more than a decade, the debate over high-stakes testing has dominated the field of education. This passionate and provocative book provides a fresh perspective…
Teachers' Motivation and Beliefs in a High-Stakes Testing Context
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dawson, Heather S.
2012-01-01
High-stakes testing has created challenges for teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other related education stakeholders in recent decades (Nichols & Berliner, 2007). While high-stakes tests have a long history (Ravitch, 2009) it was not until No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002 that the tests became law for most…
Students' Attitudes toward High-Stakes Testing and Its Effect on Educational Decisions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Moran, Aldo Alfredo
2010-01-01
With the recent increase in accountability due to No Child Left Behind, graduation rates and drop-out rates are important indicators of how well a school district is performing. High-stakes testing scores are at the forefront of a school's success and recognition as a school that is preparing and graduating students to meet society's challenging…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lessler, Karen Jean
2010-01-01
The Federal education policy No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has initiated high-stakes testing among U.S. public schools. The premise of the NCLB initiative is that all students reach proficiency in reading and math by 2014. Under NCLB, individual state education departments were required to implement annual assessments in grades two through eight…
High-Stakes Educational Testing and Democracy--Antagonistic or Symbiotic Relationship?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ydesen, Christian
2014-01-01
This article argues that high-stakes educational testing, along with the attendant questions of power, education access, education management and social selection, cannot be considered in isolation from society at large. Thus, high-stakes testing practices bear numerous implications for democratic conditions in society. For decades, advocates of…
Bordering on Success: Mexican American Students and High Stakes Testing.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pedroza, Anna
The assumptions that high-stakes testing is useful in raising educational standards for all students and that higher standards lead to higher educational performance for all students have not been tested in schools along the Texas border with Mexico. This study analyzed the effects of the high-stakes testing policy on students in a small rural…
The Balancing Act: Arts Integration and High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Van Eman, Linnea; Thorman, Jerilyn; Montgomery, Diane; Otto, Stacy
2007-01-01
This study describes three teachers and their experiences of an arts-integration reform model amidst the high-stakes accountability movement. Their struggle to practice arts integration within their school district, a culture in which high-stakes testing is prioritized is described by way of a circus metaphor. Through the theoretical lens of Self…
Stop High-Stakes Testing: An Appeal to America's Conscience
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Dale; Johnson, Bonnie; Farenga, Steve; Ness, Daniel
2007-01-01
This book is a compelling indictment of the use of high-stakes assessments with punitive consequences in public schools. The authors trace the history of the policy and document the inequities for children of poverty that undergird high-stakes testing practices. Lack of dental and medical care, environmental violence, insufficient school funding,…
High Stakes Testing and Reading Assessment. National Reading Conference Policy Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Afflerbach, Peter
2005-01-01
This National Reading Conference Policy Brief provides information related to high stakes reading tests and reading assessment. High stakes reading tests are those with highly consequential outcomes for students, teachers, and schools. These outcomes may include student promotion or retention, student placement in reading groups, school funding…
Boevé, Anja J; Meijer, Rob R; Albers, Casper J; Beetsma, Yta; Bosker, Roel J
2015-01-01
The introduction of computer-based testing in high-stakes examining in higher education is developing rather slowly due to institutional barriers (the need of extra facilities, ensuring test security) and teacher and student acceptance. From the existing literature it is unclear whether computer-based exams will result in similar results as paper-based exams and whether student acceptance can change as a result of administering computer-based exams. In this study, we compared results from a computer-based and paper-based exam in a sample of psychology students and found no differences in total scores across the two modes. Furthermore, we investigated student acceptance and change in acceptance of computer-based examining. After taking the computer-based exam, fifty percent of the students preferred paper-and-pencil exams over computer-based exams and about a quarter preferred a computer-based exam. We conclude that computer-based exam total scores are similar as paper-based exam scores, but that for the acceptance of high-stakes computer-based exams it is important that students practice and get familiar with this new mode of test administration.
High-Stakes Testing and Teacher Stress
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hoyt, Joshua Paul
2017-01-01
The purpose of this mixed-methods research study was to examine how stress levels of middle school mathematics teachers who taught Algebra I in school districts in the state of Pennsylvania relate to high-stakes testing and to explore the experiences of middle school mathematics Algebra I teachers. The researcher collected and compared it to…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Shymansky, James A.; Wang, Tzu-Ling; Annetta, Leonard A.; Yore, Larry D.; Everett, Susan A.
2013-04-01
This paper is a report of a quasi-experimental study on the impact of a systemic 5-year, K-6 professional development (PD) project on the 'high stakes' achievement test scores of different student groups in rural mid-west school districts in the USA. The PD programme utilized regional summer workshops, district-based leadership teams and distance delivery technologies to help teachers learn science concepts and inquiry teaching strategies associated with a selection of popular science inquiry kits and how to adapt inquiry science lessons in the kits to teach and reinforce skills in the language arts-i.e. to teach more than science when doing inquiry science. Analyses of the school district-level pre-post high-stakes achievement scores of 33 school districts participating in the adaptation of inquiry PD and a comparative group of 23 school districts revealed that both the Grade 3 and Grade 6 student-cohorts in the school districts utilizing adapted science inquiry lessons significantly outscored their student-cohort counterparts in the comparative school districts. The positive school district-level high-stakes test results, which serve as the basis for state and local decision making, suggest that an inquiry adaptation strategy and a combination of regional live workshop and distance delivery technologies with ongoing local leadership and support can serve as a viable PD option for K-6 science.
Social Studies, Social Justice: W(h)ither the Social Studies in High-Stakes Testing?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Au, Wayne
2009-01-01
High-stakes, standardized tests have become ubiquitous in public education in the United States. Teachers across the country are feeling the intensified pressures from high-stakes testing policies and are responding to these pressures by teaching to the tests in varying ways (Renter et al., 2006). Given the hegemony of high-stakes testing in…
High Stakes Testing and Teacher Access to Professional Opportunities: Lessons from Indonesia
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ashadi, Ashadi; Rice, Suzanne
2016-01-01
High-stakes testing regimes, in which schools are judged on their capacity to attain high student results in national tests, are becoming common in both developed and developing nations, including the United States, Britain and Australia. However, while there has been substantial investigation around the impact of high-stakes testing on curriculum…
Dialogic Teaching to the High-Stakes Standardised Test?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Segal, Aliza; Snell, Julia; Lefstein, Adam
2017-01-01
Within current educational discourse, dialogic pedagogy is diametrically opposed to "teaching to the test", especially the high-stakes standardised test. While dialogic pedagogy is about critical thinking, authenticity and freedom, test preparation evokes all that is narrow, instrumental and cynical in education. In this paper, we argue…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Segool, Natasha K.; Carlson, John S.; Goforth, Anisa N.; von der Embse, Nathan; Barterian, Justin A.
2013-01-01
This study explored differences in test anxiety on high-stakes standardized achievement testing and low-stakes testing among elementary school children. This is the first study to directly examine differences in young students' reported test anxiety between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) achievement testing and classroom testing. Three hundred…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meylani, Rusen; Bitter, Gary G.; Castaneda, Rene
2014-01-01
In this study regression and neural networks based methods are used to predict statewide high-stakes test results for middle school mathematics using the scores obtained from third party tests throughout the school year. Such prediction is of utmost significance for school districts to live up to the state's educational standards mandated by the…
Boevé, Anja J.; Meijer, Rob R.; Albers, Casper J.; Beetsma, Yta; Bosker, Roel J.
2015-01-01
The introduction of computer-based testing in high-stakes examining in higher education is developing rather slowly due to institutional barriers (the need of extra facilities, ensuring test security) and teacher and student acceptance. From the existing literature it is unclear whether computer-based exams will result in similar results as paper-based exams and whether student acceptance can change as a result of administering computer-based exams. In this study, we compared results from a computer-based and paper-based exam in a sample of psychology students and found no differences in total scores across the two modes. Furthermore, we investigated student acceptance and change in acceptance of computer-based examining. After taking the computer-based exam, fifty percent of the students preferred paper-and-pencil exams over computer-based exams and about a quarter preferred a computer-based exam. We conclude that computer-based exam total scores are similar as paper-based exam scores, but that for the acceptance of high-stakes computer-based exams it is important that students practice and get familiar with this new mode of test administration. PMID:26641632
High Stakes: Poverty, Testing, and Failure in American Schools. Second Edition
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Dale D.; Johnson, Bonnie
2005-01-01
High Stakes brings the voices of students and teachers to national debates over school accountability and educational reform. Recounting the experiences of two classrooms during one academic year, the book offers a critical exploration of excessive state-mandated monitoring, high-stakes testing pressures, and inequities in public school funding…
High-Stakes Testing and Students: Stopping or Perpetuating a Cycle of Failure?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Horn, Catherine
2003-01-01
Examines research on high stakes testing and its relationship to student outcomes, presenting data from Massachusetts and North Carolina on state trends related to high stakes testing. Findings suggest that non-white, non-Asian students, and students with special needs and English language learners, are the groups most deeply affected by high…
Flow and diffusion of high-stakes test scores.
Marder, M; Bansal, D
2009-10-13
We apply visualization and modeling methods for convective and diffusive flows to public school mathematics test scores from Texas. We obtain plots that show the most likely future and past scores of students, the effects of random processes such as guessing, and the rate at which students appear in and disappear from schools. We show that student outcomes depend strongly upon economic class, and identify the grade levels where flows of different groups diverge most strongly. Changing the effectiveness of instruction in one grade naturally leads to strongly nonlinear effects on student outcomes in subsequent grades.
Learning to Label: Socialisation, Gender, and the Hidden Curriculum of High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Booher-Jennings, Jennifer
2008-01-01
Although high-stakes tests play an increasing role in students' schooling experiences, scholars have not examined these tests as sites for socialisation. Drawing on qualitative data collected at an American urban primary school, this study explores what educators teach students about motivation and effort through high-stakes testing, how students…
High-Stakes Accountability: Student Anxiety and Large-Scale Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
von der Embse, Nathaniel P.; Witmer, Sara E.
2014-01-01
This study examined the relationship between student anxiety about high-stakes testing and their subsequent test performance. The FRIEDBEN Test Anxiety Scale was administered to 1,134 11th-grade students, and data were subsequently collected on their statewide assessment performance. Test anxiety was a significant predictor of test performance…
Using Reading Rate and Comprehension CBM to Predict High-Stakes Achievement
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Kelli Caldwell; Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R. Steve
2015-01-01
Because of the increased emphasis on standardized testing results, scores from a high-stakes, end-of-year test (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program [TCAP] Reading Composite) were used as the standard against which scores from a group-administered, curriculum-based measure (CBM), Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness: Reading (MIR:R), were…
Student Experiences of High-Stakes Testing for Progression in One Undergraduate Nursing Program
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McClenny, Tammy
2016-01-01
High-stakes testing in undergraduate nursing education are those assessments used to make critical decisions for student progression and graduation. The purpose of this study was to explore the different ways students experience multiple high-stakes tests for progression in one undergraduate BSN program. Research participants were prelicensure…
One Reading Specialist's Response to High-Stakes Testing Pressures
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Assaf, Lori
2006-01-01
Pressures to help students pass high-stakes tests affect teachers' reading instruction, their responsiveness to students' learning needs, and their professional effectiveness. This article reports on how one reading specialist responded to testing pressures in her urban elementary school. She believed that what was "right" for her…
Hiding behind High-Stakes Testing: Meritocracy, Objectivity and Inequality in U.S. Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Au, Wayne
2013-01-01
This paper analyses how high-stakes, standardised testing became the policy tool in the U.S. that it is today and discusses its role in advancing an ideology of meritocracy that fundamentally masks structural inequalities related to race and economic class. This paper first traces the early history of high-stakes testing within the U.S. context,…
High Stakes Testing and Its Impact on Rural Schools.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hodges, V. Pauline
2002-01-01
The movement to standardization and high-stakes testing has been driven by ideological and political concerns and has adversely affected teaching/learning, democratic discourse, and educational equity. Rural schools are hit harder because of geographic isolation and insufficient staff and resources. Testing used for purposes other than measuring…
Fair Testing: How Schools Should Protect Students' Rights in High-Stakes Testing.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coleman, Arthur L.
2000-01-01
While recognizing high-stakes testing's value, both the "GI Forum" decision and the Office of Civil Rights guide raise questions that boards and educators should ask about the administration and consequences of their own testing programs. Methods for systematically collecting, analyzing, disseminating, and acting on test results are needed. (MLH)
High Stakes Tests with Self-Selected Essay Questions: Addressing Issues of Fairness
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lamprianou, Iasonas
2008-01-01
This study investigates the effect of reporting the unadjusted raw scores in a high-stakes language exam when raters differ significantly in severity and self-selected questions differ significantly in difficulty. More sophisticated models, introducing meaningful facets and parameters, are successively used to investigate the characteristics of…
The Impact of High Stakes Testing: The Australian Story
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Klenowski, Val; Wyatt-Smith, Claire
2012-01-01
High stakes testing in Australia was introduced in 2008 by way of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Currently, every year all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. In 2010 the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Segool, Natasha Katherine
2009-01-01
The current study explored differences in test anxiety on high-stakes standardized achievement testing and classroom testing among elementary school children. This is the first study to directly examine differences in student test anxiety across two testing conditions with different stakes among young children. Three hundred and thirty-five…
Test Preparation Beliefs and Practices in a High-Stakes Context: A Teacher's Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gebril, Atta; Eid, Michael
2017-01-01
Policy makers worldwide are increasingly using high-stakes tests for accountability purposes. This practice has resulted in a considerable rise in test preparation activities in different instructional contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers' test preparation beliefs and practices in a high-stakes assessment context in…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Yamashita, Mika Yoder
2011-12-01
This study examined how a total of eight math and science elementary school teachers changed their classroom instruction in response to high stakes and low stakes testing in one school district. The district introduced new assessment in the school year of 2005--06 to meet the requirement set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)---that the assessment should be aligned with the state academic standards. I conducted interviews with teachers and school administrators at two elementary schools, district officials, and a representative of a non-profit organization during the school year 2007--08 to examine how the new assessment introduced in 2005--06 had shaped classroom instruction. Concepts from New Institutional Theory and cognitive approaches to policy implementation guided the design of this study. This study focused on how materials and activities associated with high stakes testing promoted ideas about good instruction, and how these ideas were carried to teachers. The study examined how teachers received messages about instruction and how they responded to the messages. The study found that high stakes testing influenced teachers' classroom instruction more than low stakes testing; however, the instructional changes teachers made in response to state testing was at the content level. The teachers' instructional strategies did not change. The teachers' instructional changes varied with the degree of implementation of existing math curriculum and with the degree of support they received in understanding the meaning of assessment results. The study concluded that, among the six teachers I studied, high stakes testing was not a sufficient intervention for changing teachers' instructional strategies. The study also addressed the challenges of aligning instructional messages across assessment, standards, and curriculum.
High Stakes Testing in the 21st Century: Implications for Students in Special Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gordon, Lola
2016-01-01
High-stakes testing has been a part of American education since its inception. The laws that govern the use of high-stakes tests include language that mandates the inclusion of students in special education. These laws play an influential role in the new large-scale assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The assessments…
Pharmacy Students' Test-Taking Motivation-Effort on a Low-Stakes Standardized Test
2011-01-01
Objective To measure third-year pharmacy students' level of motivation while completing the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) administered as a low-stakes test to better understand use of the PCOA as a measure of student content knowledge. Methods Student motivation was manipulated through an incentive (ie, personal letter from the dean) and a process of statistical motivation filtering. Data were analyzed to determine any differences between the experimental and control groups in PCOA test performance, motivation to perform well, and test performance after filtering for low motivation-effort. Results Incentivizing students diminished the need for filtering PCOA scores for low effort. Where filtering was used, performance scores improved, providing a more realistic measure of aggregate student performance. Conclusions To ensure that PCOA scores are an accurate reflection of student knowledge, incentivizing and/or filtering for low motivation-effort among pharmacy students should be considered fundamental best practice when the PCOA is administered as a low-stakes test PMID:21655395
Pharmacy students' test-taking motivation-effort on a low-stakes standardized test.
Waskiewicz, Rhonda A
2011-04-11
To measure third-year pharmacy students' level of motivation while completing the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) administered as a low-stakes test to better understand use of the PCOA as a measure of student content knowledge. Student motivation was manipulated through an incentive (ie, personal letter from the dean) and a process of statistical motivation filtering. Data were analyzed to determine any differences between the experimental and control groups in PCOA test performance, motivation to perform well, and test performance after filtering for low motivation-effort. Incentivizing students diminished the need for filtering PCOA scores for low effort. Where filtering was used, performance scores improved, providing a more realistic measure of aggregate student performance. To ensure that PCOA scores are an accurate reflection of student knowledge, incentivizing and/or filtering for low motivation-effort among pharmacy students should be considered fundamental best practice when the PCOA is administered as a low-stakes test.
Wood, Sarah G; Hart, Sara A; Little, Callie W; Phillips, Beth M
2016-07-01
Past research suggests that reading comprehension test performance does not rely solely on targeted cognitive processes such as word reading, but also on other non-target aspects such as test anxiety. Using a genetically sensitive design, we sought to understand the genetic and environmental etiology of the association between test anxiety and reading comprehension as measured by a high-stakes test. Mirroring the behavioral literature of test anxiety, three different dimensions of test anxiety were examined in relation to reading comprehension, namely intrusive thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviors. Participants included 426 sets of twins from the Florida Twin Project on Reading. The results indicated test anxiety was negatively associated with reading comprehension test performance, specifically through common shared environmental influences. The significant contribution of test anxiety to reading comprehension on a high-stakes test supports the notion that non-targeted factors may be interfering with accurately assessing students' reading abilities.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Au, Wayne
2016-01-01
High-stakes, standardized testing is regularly used within in accountability narratives as a tool for achieving racial equality in schools. Using the frameworks of "racial projects" and "neoliberal multiculturalism," and drawing on historical and empirical research, this article argues that not only does high-stakes,…
Group Differences in Test-Taking Behaviour: An Example from a High-Stakes Testing Program
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stenlund, Tova; Eklöf, Hanna; Lyrén, Per-Erik
2017-01-01
This study investigated whether different groups of test-takers vary in their reported test-taking behaviour in a high-stakes test situation. A between-group design (N = 1129) was used to examine whether high and low achievers, as well as females and males, differ in their use of test-taking strategies, and in level of reported test anxiety and…
Inquiry-Based Instruction and High Stakes Testing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cothern, Rebecca L.
Science education is a key to economic success for a country in terms of promoting advances in national industry and technology and maximizing competitive advantage in a global marketplace. The December 2010 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked the United States 23rd of 65 countries in science. That dismal standing in science proficiency impedes the ability of American school graduates to compete in the global market place. Furthermore, the implementation of high stakes testing in science mandated by the 2007 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has created an additional need for educators to find effective science pedagogy. Research has shown that inquiry-based science instruction is one of the predominant science instructional methods. Inquiry-based instruction is a multifaceted teaching method with its theoretical foundation in constructivism. A correlational survey research design was used to determine the relationship between levels of inquiry-based science instruction and student performance on a standardized state science test. A self-report survey, using a Likert-type scale, was completed by 26 fifth grade teachers. Participants' responses were analyzed and grouped as high, medium, or low level inquiry instruction. The unit of analysis for the achievement variable was the student scale score average from the state science test. Spearman's Rho correlation data showed a positive relationship between the level of inquiry-based instruction and student achievement on the state assessment. The findings can assist teachers and administrators by providing additional research on the benefits of the inquiry-based instructional method. Implications for positive social change include increases in student proficiency and decision-making skills related to science policy issues which can help make them more competitive in the global marketplace.
High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Glass, Gene V.; Berliner, David C.
2005-01-01
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized test scores are the indicator used to hold schools and school districts accountable for student achievement. Each state is responsible for constructing an accountability system, attaching consequences--or stakes--for student performance. The theory of action implied by this…
Raising the Stakes: High-Stakes Testing and the Attack on Public Education in New York
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hursh, David
2013-01-01
Over the last almost two decades, high-stakes testing has become increasingly central to New York's schools. In the 1990s, the State Department of Education began requiring that secondary students pass five standardized exams to graduate. In 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act required students in grades three through eight to take math and…
Utilization of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to Reduce Test Anxiety in High Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mohler, Marie Elaine
2013-01-01
There are many reasons a person may fail a high stakes test such as the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN®). Sleep deprivation, illness, life stressors, knowledge deficit, and test anxiety are some of the common explanations. A student with test anxiety may feel threatened by this evaluation process. This…
Validity Inferences under High-Stakes Conditions: A Response from Language Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hill, Kathryn; McNamara, Tim
2015-01-01
Those who work in second- and foreign-language testing often find Koretz's concern for validity inferences under high-stakes (VIHS) conditions both welcome and familiar. While the focus of the article is more narrowly on the potential for two instructional responses to test-based accountability, "reallocation" and "coaching,"…
Test Anxiety and High-Stakes Test Performance between School Settings: Implications for Educators
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
von der Embse, Nathaniel; Hasson, Ramzi
2012-01-01
With the enactment of standards-based accountability in education, high-stakes tests have become the dominant method for measuring school effectiveness and student achievement. Schools and educators are under increasing pressure to meet achievement standards. However, there are variables which may interfere with the authentic measurement of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
LaFlair, Geoffrey T.; Staples, Shelley
2017-01-01
Investigations of the validity of a number of high-stakes language assessments are conducted using an argument-based approach, which requires evidence for inferences that are critical to score interpretation (Chapelle, Enright, & Jamieson, 2008b; Kane, 2013). The current study investigates the extrapolation inference for a high-stakes test of…
High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Updated Analyses with NAEP Data
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Glass, Gene V.; Berliner, David C.
2012-01-01
The present research is a follow-up study of earlier published analyses that looked at the relationship between high-stakes testing pressure and student achievement in 25 states. Using the previously derived Accountability Pressure Index (APR) as a measure of state-level policy pressure for performance on standardized tests, a series of…
How We Define Success: Holding Values in an Era of High Stakes Accountability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gasoi, Emily
2009-01-01
In the current climate of high stakes testing and tough love rhetoric, many educational stakeholders have become increasingly reliant on standardized test scores to determine whether or not individual students, teachers, and schools--and even entire districts and states--are successful. In contrast to the black and white picture that test-driven…
A Comparative Study of Online Remote Proctored versus Onsite Proctored High-Stakes Exams
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weiner, John A.; Hurtz, Gregory M.
2017-01-01
Advances in technology have spurred innovations in secure assessment delivery. One such innovation, remote online proctoring, has become increasingly sophisticated and is gaining wider consideration for high-stakes testing. However, there is an absence of published research examining remote online proctoring and its effects on test scores and the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kearns, Laura-Lee
2016-01-01
High-stakes standardized literacy testing is not neutral and continues to build upon the legacy of dominant power relations in the state in its ability to sort, select and rank students and ultimately produce and name some youth as illiterate in contrast to an ideal white, male, literate citizen. I trace the effects of high-stakes standardized…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rowland, Barbara
2011-01-01
With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in January of 2002, curricula in high schools in the United States have adjusted to make room for test preparation activities and high stakes testing. This involves teaching skills and content in the format of the test only, drilling students on specific skills and content areas that will be…
Measuring and Modeling Change in Examinee Effort on Low-Stakes Tests across Testing Occasions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sessoms, John; Finney, Sara J.
2015-01-01
Because schools worldwide use low-stakes tests to make important decisions, value-added indices computed from test scores must accurately reflect student learning, which requires equal test-taking effort across testing occasions. Evaluating change in effort assumes effort is measured equivalently across occasions. We evaluated the longitudinal…
Fundamental Concerns in High-Stakes Language Testing: The Case of the College English Test
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jin, Yan
2011-01-01
The College English Test (CET) is an English language test designed for educational purposes, administered on a very large scale, and used for making high-stakes decisions. This paper discusses the key issues facing the CET during the course of its development in the past two decades. It argues that the most fundamental and critical concerns of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Glass, Gene V.; Berliner, David C.
2005-01-01
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized test scores are the indicator used to hold schools and school districts accountable for student achievement. Each state is responsible for constructing an accountability system, attaching consequences--or stakes--for student performance. The theory of action implied by this…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Domenech, Daniel A.
2000-01-01
The question of validity, or how high-stakes tests are being used and interpreted, threatens to undermine the entire standards movement. Joint standards developed by three professional associations say decisions affecting students' life chances should not be based on test scores alone. Objectivity and teaching to tests are real concerns. (MLH)
High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act. Appendices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Glass, Gene V.; Berliner, David C.
2005-01-01
This paper presents the appendices to the "High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act" report. It contains the following appendices: (1) Example of Context for Assessing State-Level Stakes Sheet--Connecticut; (2) Example of Completed Rewards and Sanctions Worksheet--Connecticut; (3) Directions…
Funding, Reputation and Targets: The Discursive Logics of High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lewis, Steven; Hardy, Ian
2015-01-01
This paper provides insights into teacher and school-based administrators' responses to policy demands for improved outcomes on high-stakes, standardised literacy and numeracy tests in Australia. Specifically, the research reveals the effects of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), and associated policies, in the state…
Influences of High-Stakes Testing on Middle School Mission and Practice
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Musoleno, Ronald R.; White, George P.
2010-01-01
This study explored the effects of high-stakes testing and accountability on the fundamental practices associated with middle school philosophy. Participants were middle school educators, including administrators and teachers, from Pennsylvania middle schools. An online survey was used to collect data for this study. The survey addressed the…
The Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Latina/o Students' College Aspirations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rodriguez, Jessica M.; Arellano, Lucy
2016-01-01
This study explores the influence high-stakes testing has on Latina/o student aspirations and subsequent college enrollment. It quantitatively examines the critical juncture of high school exit and college entry at a school district serving a predominately Latino population. Findings confirm a strong correlation between the math and English…
Exit Exams, High-Stakes Testing, and Students with Disabilities: A Persistent Challenge
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yell, Mitchell L.; Katsiyannis, Antonis; Collins, James C.; Losinski, Mickey
2012-01-01
The demands for accountability in education have led to an increase in high-stakes testing practices in public schools. Accountability can be seen at the high school level in the use of exit examinations (hereafter "exit exams") that students must pass to receive a diploma and graduate from high school. One of the most challenging issues…
High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Does Accountability Pressure Increase Student Learning?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nichols, Sharon L.; Glass, Gene V.; Berliner, David C.
2006-01-01
This study examined the relationship between high-stakes testing pressure and student achievement across 25 states. Standardized portfolios were created for each study state. Each portfolio contained a range of documents that told the "story" of accountability implementation and impact in that state. Using the "law of comparative…
Thomson, Fiona C; MacKenzie, Rhoda K; Anderson, Marie; Denison, Alan R; Currie, Graeme P
2017-11-15
Volunteer patients (also known as patient partners (PPs)) play a vital role in undergraduate healthcare curricula. They frequently take part in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) and rate aspects of students' performance. However, the inclusion and weighting of PP marks varies, while attitudes and opinions regarding how (and if) they should contribute towards the pass/fail outcome are uncertain. A prospective observational study was conducted to explore beliefs of PPs regarding inclusion of their scores in a high stakes undergraduate OSCE in a single UK medical school. All PPs delivering components of the local MBChB curriculum were asked to participate in the questionnaire study. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and framework analysis respectively. Fifty out of 160 (31% response rate) PPs completed the questionnaire; 70% had participated in a final year OSCE. Thirty (60%) felt their marks should be incorporated into a student's overall score, while 28% were uncertain. The main reasons for inclusion were recognition of the patient perspective (31%) and their ability to assess attitudes and professionalism (27%), while reasons against inclusion included lack of PP qualification/training (18%) and concerns relating to consistency (14%). The majority of PPs were uncertain what proportion of the total mark they should contribute, although many felt that 5-10% of the total score was reasonable. Most respondents (70%) felt that globally low PP scores should not result in an automatic fail and many (62%) acknowledged that prior to mark inclusion, further training was required. These data show that most respondents considered it reasonable to "formalise their expertise" by contributing marks in the overall assessment of students in a high stakes OSCE, although what proportion they believe this should represent was variable. Some expressed concerns that using marks towards progress decisions may alter PP response
Effort in Low-Stakes Assessments: What Does It Take to Perform as Well as in a High-Stakes Setting?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Attali, Yigal
2016-01-01
Performance of students in low-stakes testing situations has been a concern and focus of recent research. However, researchers who have examined the effect of stakes on performance have not been able to compare low-stakes performance to truly high-stakes performance of the same students. Results of such a comparison are reported in this article.…
On the Validity of Repeated Assessments in the UMAT, a High-Stakes Admissions Test
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Andrich, David; Styles, Irene; Mercer, Annette; Puddey, Ian B.
2017-01-01
The possibility that the validity of assessment is compromised by repeated sittings of highly competitive and high profile selection tests has been documented and is of concern to stake-holders. An illustrative example is the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) used by some medical and dental courses in Australia and…
Principles and Practices of Test Score Equating. Research Report. ETS RR-10-29
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dorans, Neil J.; Moses, Tim P.; Eignor, Daniel R.
2010-01-01
Score equating is essential for any testing program that continually produces new editions of a test and for which the expectation is that scores from these editions have the same meaning over time. Particularly in testing programs that help make high-stakes decisions, it is extremely important that test equating be done carefully and accurately.…
High-Stakes Testing and Latina/o Students: Creating a Hierarchy of College Readiness
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ruecker, Todd
2013-01-01
This article examines how high-stakes testing policies can constrain the way teachers at predominately Latina/o high schools teach literacy and subsequently influence the success of Latina/o students at college. It is based on a year and a half study of seven Latina/o students making transition from a high school to a community college or…
Participatory Formative Assessment in an Environment of High-Stakes Testing: An Autoethnography
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Karin Pogna
2011-01-01
The purpose of this study was to describe my experiences as a campus principal in facilitating the use of participatory formative assessment (PFA) in an environment of accountability and high-stakes testing. The methodology I employed was autoethnography (Chang, 2008; Ellis, 2004; Reed-Danahay, 1997; Stinson, 2009). I kept journals over a period…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Atalmis, Erkan Hasan
2016-01-01
Multiple-choice (MC) items are commonly used in high-stake tests. Thus, each item of such tests should be meticulously constructed to increase the accuracy of decisions based on test results. Haladyna and his colleagues (2002) addressed the valid item-writing guidelines to construct high quality MC items in order to increase test reliability and…
Does High-Stakes Testing Increase Cultural Capital among Low-Income and Racial Minority Students?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hong, Won-Pyo; Youngs, Peter
2008-01-01
This article draws on research from Texas and Chicago to examine whether highstakes testing enables low-income and racial minority students to acquire cultural capital. While students' performance on state or district tests rose after the implementation of high-stakes testing and accountability policies in Texas and Chicago in the 1990s, several…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pringle, Rose M.; Martin, Sarah Carrier
2005-09-01
In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education in the United States issued a report called A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. This report and other policy initiatives such as the No Child Left Behind Legislation recommended that the individual states institute assessments to hold schools accountable. This research explored the potential impact of impending standardised testing on teaching science in elementary schools in one school district in Florida. We explored the teachers' concerns about the upcoming high-stakes tests in science, possible impact on their curriculum and what changes, if any, will be made in the approach to science teaching and learning in their classrooms. As the teachers look toward the implementation of high-stakes testing in science, they have recognised the need to teach science. This recognition is not borne out of the importance of science learning for elementary school children, but rather out of fear of failure and the effects of tangible rewards or punishments that accompany high-stakes testing. In anticipation, the teachers are preparing to align their teaching to the science standards while aggressively searching for test preparatory materials. Schools are also involved in professional development and structural changes to facilitate teaching of science.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stillman, Jamy; Anderson, Lauren
2011-01-01
Considerable research indicates that high-stakes accountability policies have the capacity to influence language arts instruction, particularly in urban, high-needs schools where pressure to increase test scores tends to be most acute. This article utilizes Cultural Historical Activity Theory to critically examine the constraints and affordances…
On My Mind: Pay It Forward with Professional Development, Not High-Stakes Testing.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Warlick, David
2001-01-01
Suggests that professional planning, not high-stakes testing, "an Industrial Age solution to an Information Age problem," is the key to education's future. Proposes that the day for school library media specialists and teachers should be equally divided between teaching and professional planning-four hours of instructional supervision and four…
High-Stakes Testing and Its Relationship to Stress Levels of Coastal Secondary Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McDaniel, Sheneatha Lashelle Alexander
2012-01-01
The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between high-stakes tests and stress with secondary teachers. Furthermore, this study investigated whether veteran teachers experience more stress than novice teachers and whether or not self-efficacy, gender, accountability status, and years of experience influence teacher stress as it…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shriberg, David; Kruger, Louis J.
2007-01-01
This overview article addresses the different meanings of high takes testing, which takes into consideration accountability at different levels, such as teacher, school, and state. In this regard, "high-stakes" may mean different things in different states or countries. We will advance an argument for why school psychologists should (a) be…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kiany, Gholam Reza; Shayestefar, Parvaneh; Samar, Reza Ghafar; Akbari, Ramin
2013-01-01
A steady stream of studies on high-stakes tests such as University Entrance Examinations (UEEs) suggests that high-stakes tests reforms serve as the leverage for promoting quality of learning, standards of teaching, and credible forms of accountability. However, such remediation is often not as effective as hoped and success is not necessarily…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lim, Hyo Jin
2010-01-01
The present study investigated longitudinal changes of the reading achievement among schools populated with English learners. It also examined the heterogeneity in the English learners group in terms of students' performance in high stakes reading tests. Historically, English learners have often been considered the students who are in the process…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hoffman, Lynn M.; Nottis, Katharyn E. K.
2008-01-01
This mixed-methods study examines young adolescents' perceptions of strategies implemented before a state-mandated "high-stakes" test. Survey results for Grade 8 students (N = 215) are analyzed by sex, academic group, and preparation team. Letters to the principal are reviewed for convergence and additional themes. Although students were most…
The Effect of Mobility on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alvarez, Ray
2006-01-01
This research studies the effects of mobility on the high-stakes test scores of a Title I South Central Texas school district. The study involved 10, 5th-grade elementary feeder school populations graduating to the 6th grade in 3 middle schools. The researcher compared the 1st administration scores of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills…
Comparison of performance criteria for evaluating stake test data
Stan T. Lebow; Patricia K. Lebow; Grant T. Kirker
2017-01-01
Stake tests are a critical part of evaluating durability of wood in ground-contact, but there is a lack of criteria for interpreting stake test results. This paper discusses criteria that might be used to determine if short term ratings indicate satisfactory longterm performance. Ratings of 19 by 19 mm stakes from multiple plots in the Harrison Experimental Forest,...
The Influence of High-Stakes Testing on Teacher Self-Efficacy and Job-Related Stress
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gonzalez, Alejandro; Peters, Michelle L.; Orange, Amy; Grigsby, Bettye
2017-01-01
In the United States, teachers' job-related stress and self-efficacy levels across all grades are influenced in some manner by the demands of high-stakes testing. This sequential mixed-methods study aimed at examining the dynamics among assigned subject matter, teacher job-related stress, and teacher self-efficacy in a large south-eastern Texas…
Developing Local Oral Reading Fluency Cut Scores for Predicting High-Stakes Test Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grapin, Sally L.; Kranzler, John H.; Waldron, Nancy; Joyce-Beaulieu, Diana; Algina, James
2017-01-01
This study evaluated the classification accuracy of a second grade oral reading fluency curriculum-based measure (R-CBM) in predicting third grade state test performance. It also compared the long-term classification accuracy of local and publisher-recommended R-CBM cut scores. Participants were 266 students who were divided into a calibration…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Seymour, Clancy; Garrison, Mark
2015-01-01
Building on recent discussions regarding how current national standards for physical education promote cognitive outcomes over physical outcomes, the authors explore how a new era in high-stakes testing is also contributing to an emphasis on the cognitive, over the physical. While high-stakes testing has been linked to reducing the amount of…
High-Stakes, Minimum-Competency Exams: How Competent Are They for Evaluating Teacher Competence?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Goodman, Gay; Arbona, Consuelo; Dominguez de Rameriz, Romilia
2008-01-01
Increasingly, teacher educators recommend authentic, performance-related measures for evaluating teacher candidates. Nevertheless, more states are requiring teachers to pass high-stakes, minimum-competency exams. This study examined the relation between teacher candidate scores on authentic measures and their scores on certification exams required…
Achievement goal orientation and situational motivation for a low-stakes test of content knowledge.
Waskiewicz, Rhonda A
2012-05-10
To determine the extent of the relationship between students' inherent motivation to achieve in a doctor of pharmacy program and their motivation to achieve on a single low-stakes test of content knowledge. The Attitude Toward Learning Questionnaire (ATL) was administered to 66 third-year pharmacy students at the beginning of the spring 2011 semester, and the Student Opinion Scale (SOS) was administered to the same group immediately following completion of the Pharmacy Curricular Outcomes Assessment (PCOA). Significant differences were found in performance approach and work avoidance based on situational motivation scores. Situational motivation was also found to be directly correlated with performance and mastery approaches and inversely correlated with work avoidance. Criteria were met for predicting importance and effort from performance and mastery approaches and work avoidance scores of pharmacy students. The ability to predict pharmacy students' motivation to perform on a low-stakes standardized test of content knowledge increases the test's usefulness as a measure of curricular effectiveness.
Auditing for Score Inflation Using Self-Monitoring Assessments: Findings from Three Pilot Studies
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koretz, Daniel; Jennings, Jennifer L.; Ng, Hui Leng; Yu, Carol; Braslow, David; Langi, Meredith
2016-01-01
Test-based accountability often produces score inflation. Most studies have evaluated inflation by comparing trends on a high-stakes test and a lower stakes audit test. However, Koretz and Beguin (2010) noted weaknesses of audit tests and suggested self-monitoring assessments (SMAs), which incorporate audit items into high-stakes tests. This…
Student Engagement in High-Stakes Accountability Systems
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cavendish, Wendy; Márquez, Adrián; Roberts, Mary; Suarez, Kristen; Lima, Wesley
2017-01-01
In a nationwide effort to create standardized performance criteria, there has been an emphasis on testing data as the strict measurement of teacher and student success or failure (Volante & Sonia, 2010). These testing accountability systems, developed under No Child Left Behind (2001), were based on assumptions that high-stakes assessments…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kang, Jee Sun Emily
This study explored how inquiry-based teaching and learning processes occurred in two teachers' diverse 8th grade Physical Science classrooms in a Program Improvement junior high school within the context of high-stakes standardized testing. Instructors for the courses examined included not only the two 8th grade science teachers, but also graduate fellows from a nearby university. Research was drawn from inquiry-based instruction in science education, the achievement gap, and the high stakes testing movement, as well as situated learning theory to understand how opportunities for inquiry were negotiated within the diverse classroom context. Transcripts of taped class sessions; student work samples; interviews of teachers and students; and scores from the California Standards Test in science were collected and analyzed. Findings indicated that the teachers provided structured inquiry in order to support their students in learning about forces and to prepare them for the standardized test. Teachers also supported students in generating evidence-based explanations, connecting inquiry-based investigations with content on forces, proficiently using science vocabulary, and connecting concepts about forces to their daily lives. Findings from classroom data revealed constraints to student learning: students' limited language proficiency, peer counter culture, and limited time. Supports were evidenced as well: graduate fellows' support during investigations, teachers' guided questioning, standardized test preparation, literacy support, and home-school connections. There was no statistical difference in achievement on the Forces Unit test or science standardized test between classes with graduate fellows and without fellows. There was also no statistical difference in student performance between the two teachers' classrooms, even though their teaching styles were very different. However, there was a strong correlation between students' achievement on the chapter test and
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Steele, Marcee M.
2010-01-01
This article reviews characteristics of high school students with learning disabilities and presents instructional modifications and study skills to help them succeed in algebra and geometry courses and on high stakes mathematics assessments.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mason, Janet Harmon
2010-01-01
The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of high-stakes testing and accountability on teachers' perceptions of their professional identities. Teachers' instructional practice, work environments, and personal factors are now immersed in the context of high-stakes testing and accountability. This context colors the decisions teachers make…
Computer Literacy and the Construct Validity of a High-Stakes Computer-Based Writing Assessment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jin, Yan; Yan, Ming
2017-01-01
One major threat to validity in high-stakes testing is construct-irrelevant variance. In this study we explored whether the transition from a paper-and-pencil to a computer-based test mode in a high-stakes test in China, the College English Test, has brought about variance irrelevant to the construct being assessed in this test. Analyses of the…
Growing the Good Stuff: One Literacy Coach's Approach to Support Teachers with High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zoch, Melody
2015-01-01
This ethnographic study reports on one elementary literacy coach's response to high-stakes testing and her approach to support third- through fifth-grade teachers in a Title I school in Texas. Sources of data included field notes and observations of classes and meetings, audio/video recordings, and transcribed interviews. The findings illustrate…
Achievement Goal Orientation and Situational Motivation for a Low-Stakes Test of Content Knowledge
2012-01-01
Objective. To determine the extent of the relationship between students’ inherent motivation to achieve in a doctor of pharmacy program and their motivation to achieve on a single low-stakes test of content knowledge. Method. The Attitude Toward Learning Questionnaire (ATL) was administered to 66 third-year pharmacy students at the beginning of the spring 2011 semester, and the Student Opinion Scale (SOS) was administered to the same group immediately following completion of the Pharmacy Curricular Outcomes Assessment (PCOA). Results. Significant differences were found in performance approach and work avoidance based on situational motivation scores. Situational motivation was also found to be directly correlated with performance and mastery approaches and inversely correlated with work avoidance. Criteria were met for predicting importance and effort from performance and mastery approaches and work avoidance scores of pharmacy students. Conclusions. The ability to predict pharmacy students’ motivation to perform on a low-stakes standardized test of content knowledge increases the test’s usefulness as a measure of curricular effectiveness. PMID:22611274
Selfish play increases during high-stakes NBA games and is rewarded with more lucrative contracts.
Uhlmann, Eric Luis; Barnes, Christopher M
2014-01-01
High-stakes team competitions can present a social dilemma in which participants must choose between concentrating on their personal performance and assisting teammates as a means of achieving group objectives. We find that despite the seemingly strong group incentive to win the NBA title, cooperative play actually diminishes during playoff games, negatively affecting team performance. Thus team cooperation decreases in the very high stakes contexts in which it is most important to perform well together. Highlighting the mixed incentives that underlie selfish play, personal scoring is rewarded with more lucrative future contracts, whereas assisting teammates to score is associated with reduced pay due to lost opportunities for personal scoring. A combination of misaligned incentives and psychological biases in performance evaluation bring out the "I" in "team" when cooperation is most critical.
Selfish Play Increases during High-Stakes NBA Games and Is Rewarded with More Lucrative Contracts
Uhlmann, Eric Luis; Barnes, Christopher M.
2014-01-01
High-stakes team competitions can present a social dilemma in which participants must choose between concentrating on their personal performance and assisting teammates as a means of achieving group objectives. We find that despite the seemingly strong group incentive to win the NBA title, cooperative play actually diminishes during playoff games, negatively affecting team performance. Thus team cooperation decreases in the very high stakes contexts in which it is most important to perform well together. Highlighting the mixed incentives that underlie selfish play, personal scoring is rewarded with more lucrative future contracts, whereas assisting teammates to score is associated with reduced pay due to lost opportunities for personal scoring. A combination of misaligned incentives and psychological biases in performance evaluation bring out the “I” in “team” when cooperation is most critical. PMID:24763384
Examining a Public Montessori School's Response to the Pressures of High-Stakes Accountability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Block, Corrie Rebecca
2015-01-01
A public Montessori school is expected to demonstrate high student scores on standardized assessments to succeed in the current school accountability era. A problem for a public Montessori elementary school is how to make sense of the school's high-stakes assessment scores in terms of Montessori's unique educational approach. This case study…
Measuring Motivation in Low-Stakes Assessments. Research Report. ETS RR-15-19
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Finn, Bridgid
2015-01-01
There is a growing concern that when scores from low-stakes assessments are reported without considering student motivation as a construct of interest, biased conclusions about how much students know will result. Low motivation is a problem particularly relevant to low-stakes testing scenarios, which may be low stakes for the test taker but have…
Mindfulness, anxiety, and high-stakes mathematics performance in the laboratory and classroom.
Bellinger, David B; DeCaro, Marci S; Ralston, Patricia A S
2015-12-01
Mindfulness enhances emotion regulation and cognitive performance. A mindful approach may be especially beneficial in high-stakes academic testing environments, in which anxious thoughts disrupt cognitive control. The current studies examined whether mindfulness improves the emotional response to anxiety-producing testing situations, freeing working memory resources, and improving performance. In Study 1, we examined performance in a high-pressure laboratory setting. Mindfulness indirectly benefited math performance by reducing the experience of state anxiety. This benefit occurred selectively for problems that required greater working memory resources. Study 2 extended these findings to a calculus course taken by undergraduate engineering majors. Mindfulness indirectly benefited students' performance on high-stakes quizzes and exams by reducing their cognitive test anxiety. Mindfulness did not impact performance on lower-stakes homework assignments. These findings reveal an important mechanism by which mindfulness benefits academic performance, and suggest that mindfulness may help attenuate the negative effects of test anxiety. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Passman, Roger
High stakes testing is a given in many public school districts in the United States. This paper reports the chilling effect high stakes testing had on the pedagogy of one teacher. The study took place in a large Midwestern urban district where a university consultant observed a fifth-grade classroom. This researcher was able to observe and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Knekta, Eva
2017-01-01
This study investigated changes in reported test-taking motivation from a low-stakes to a high-stakes test and if there are differences in reported test-taking motivation between school classes. A questionnaire including scales assessing reported effort, expectancies, perceived importance, interest, and test anxiety was administered to a sample of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bjork, Christopher
2015-01-01
If there is one thing that describes the trajectory of American education, it is this: more high-stakes testing. In the United States, the debates surrounding this trajectory can be so fierce that it feels like we are in uncharted waters. As Christopher Bjork reminds us in this study, however, we are not the first to make testing so central to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Young, I. Phillip; Fawcett, Paul
2013-01-01
Several teacher models exist for using high-stakes testing outcomes to make continuous employment decisions for principals. These models are reviewed, and specific flaws are noted if these models are retrofitted for principals. To address these flaws, a different methodology is proposed on the basis of actual field data. Specially addressed are…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Au, Wayne
2011-01-01
Current and former leaders of many major urban school districts, including Washington, D.C.'s Michelle Rhee and New Orleans' Paul Vallas, have sought to use tests to evaluate teachers. In fact, the use of high-stakes standardized tests to evaluate teacher performance in the manner of value-added measurement (VAM) has become one of the cornerstones…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Klein, Joseph
2017-01-01
The purpose of the research is to investigate the behaviour of school personnel under two assessment-reporting conditions and school functioning when faced with the choice of excelling in high-stakes tests or catering to local educational needs. The functioning of 60 schools was compared in terms of their preparation for high-risk external tests…
Whose IQ is it?--Assessor bias variance in high-stakes psychological assessment.
McDermott, Paul A; Watkins, Marley W; Rhoad, Anna M
2014-03-01
Assessor bias variance exists for a psychological measure when some appreciable portion of the score variation that is assumed to reflect examinees' individual differences (i.e., the relevant phenomena in most psychological assessments) instead reflects differences among the examiners who perform the assessment. Ordinary test reliability estimates and standard errors of measurement do not inherently encompass assessor bias variance. This article reports on the application of multilevel linear modeling to examine the presence and extent of assessor bias in the administration of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) for a sample of 2,783 children evaluated by 448 regional school psychologists for high-stakes special education classification purposes. It was found that nearly all WISC-IV scores conveyed significant and nontrivial amounts of variation that had nothing to do with children's actual individual differences and that the Full Scale IQ and Verbal Comprehension Index scores evidenced quite substantial assessor bias. Implications are explored. 2014 APA
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Au, Wayne
2011-01-01
The application of the principles of scientific management within the structure, organization, and curriculum of public schools in the US became dominant during the early 1900s. Based upon research evidence from the modern day era of high-stakes testing in US public education, the fundamental logics guiding scientific management have resurfaced…
Scott, Ingrid U; Oden, Neal L; VanVeldhuisen, Paul C; Ip, Michael S; Blodi, Barbara A; Antoszyk, Andrew N
2009-11-01
To evaluate the incidence of intravitreal silicone oil (SO) droplets associated with intravitreal injections using a staked-on vs luer cone syringe design in the SCORE (Standard Care vs COrticosteroid in REtinal Vein Occlusion) Study. Prospective, randomized, phase III clinical trial. The incidence of intravitreal SO was compared among participants exposed to the staked-on syringe design, the luer cone syringe design, or both of the syringe designs in the SCORE Study, which evaluated intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection(s) for vision loss secondary to macular edema associated with central or branch retinal vein occlusion. Injections were given at baseline and 4-month intervals, based on treatment assignment and study-defined retreatment criteria. Because intravitreal SO was observed following injections in some participants, investigators were instructed, on September 22, 2006, to look for intravitreal SO at all study visits. On November 1, 2007, the luer cone syringe design replaced the staked-on syringe design. A total of 464 participants received a total of 1,205 injections between November 4, 2004 and February 28, 2009. Intravitreal SO was noted in 141 of 319 participants (44%) exposed only to staked-on syringes, 11 of 87 (13%) exposed to both syringe designs, and 0 of 58 exposed only to luer cone syringes (P < .0001). Among participants with first injections after September 22, 2006, intravitreal SO was noted in 65 of 114 (57%) injected only with staked-on syringes compared with 0 of 58 injected only with luer cone syringes. Differential follow-up is unlikely to explain these results. In the SCORE Study, luer cone syringe design is associated with a lower frequency of intravitreal SO droplet occurrence compared with the staked-on syringe design, likely attributable to increased residual space in the needle hub with the luer cone design.
Using Rasch Measurement to Score, Evaluate, and Improve Examinations in an Anatomy Course
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Royal, Kenneth D.; Gilliland, Kurt O.; Kernick, Edward T.
2014-01-01
Any examination that involves moderate to high stakes implications for examinees should be psychometrically sound and legally defensible. Currently, there are two broad and competing families of test theories that are used to score examination data. The majority of instructors outside the high-stakes testing arena rely on classical test theory…
Change in Test-Taking Motivation and Its Relationship to Test Performance in Low-Stakes Assessments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Penk, Christiane; Richter, Dirk
2017-01-01
Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of low-stakes assessments (i.e., assessments without direct consequences for the test-takers) are being used to evaluate the quality of educational systems. Internationally, research has shown that low-stakes test results can be biased due to students' low test-taking motivation and that…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jerome, Diane C.
2010-01-01
This study explored how science teachers and school administrators perceive the use of the affective domain during science instruction situated within a high-stakes testing environment. Through a multimethodological inquiry using phenomenology and critical ethnography, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with six fifth-grade…
Ho, Andrew D; Yu, Carol C
2015-06-01
Many statistical analyses benefit from the assumption that unconditional or conditional distributions are continuous and normal. More than 50 years ago in this journal, Lord and Cook chronicled departures from normality in educational tests, and Micerri similarly showed that the normality assumption is met rarely in educational and psychological practice. In this article, the authors extend these previous analyses to state-level educational test score distributions that are an increasingly common target of high-stakes analysis and interpretation. Among 504 scale-score and raw-score distributions from state testing programs from recent years, nonnormal distributions are common and are often associated with particular state programs. The authors explain how scaling procedures from item response theory lead to nonnormal distributions as well as unusual patterns of discreteness. The authors recommend that distributional descriptive statistics be calculated routinely to inform model selection for large-scale test score data, and they illustrate consequences of nonnormality using sensitivity studies that compare baseline results to those from normalized score scales.
On the Reliability of High-Stakes Teacher Assessment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Sandra
2013-01-01
For a number of reasons, increasing reliance is being placed on teacher assessment in high-stakes contexts in many countries around the world. Simultaneously, countries that have for some time relied to greater or lesser degrees on teacher assessment for high-stakes purposes are in the process of questioning the validity of that reliance. In…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lievens, Filip; Patterson, Fiona
2011-01-01
In high-stakes selection among candidates with considerable domain-specific knowledge and experience, investigations of whether high-fidelity simulations (assessment centers; ACs) have incremental validity over low-fidelity simulations (situational judgment tests; SJTs) are lacking. Therefore, this article integrates research on the validity of…
Xu, Jian
2017-01-01
The present study investigated test-taking motivation in L2 listening testing context by applying Expectancy-Value Theory as the framework. Specifically, this study was intended to examine the complex relationships among expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, listening metacognitive awareness, and listening test score using data from a large-scale and high-stakes language test among Chinese first-year undergraduates. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating effect of listening metacognitive awareness on the relationship between expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score. According to the results, test takers’ listening scores can be predicted by expectancy, interest, and listening anxiety significantly. The relationship between expectancy, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score was mediated by listening metacognitive awareness. The findings have implications for test takers to improve their test taking motivation and listening metacognitive awareness, as well as for L2 teachers to intervene in L2 listening classrooms. PMID:29312063
Xu, Jian
2017-01-01
The present study investigated test-taking motivation in L2 listening testing context by applying Expectancy-Value Theory as the framework. Specifically, this study was intended to examine the complex relationships among expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, listening metacognitive awareness, and listening test score using data from a large-scale and high-stakes language test among Chinese first-year undergraduates. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating effect of listening metacognitive awareness on the relationship between expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score. According to the results, test takers' listening scores can be predicted by expectancy, interest, and listening anxiety significantly. The relationship between expectancy, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score was mediated by listening metacognitive awareness. The findings have implications for test takers to improve their test taking motivation and listening metacognitive awareness, as well as for L2 teachers to intervene in L2 listening classrooms.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Molloy, Sean
2012-01-01
Mina Shaughnessy continues to exert powerful influences over Basic Writing practices, discourses and pedagogy thirty-five years after her death: Basic Writing remains in some ways trapped by Shaughnessy's legacy in what Min-Zhan Lu labeled as essentialism, accommodationism and linguistic innocence. High-stakes writing tests, a troubling hallmark…
Bensnes, Simon Søbstad
2016-09-01
Pollen is known to cause allergic reactions and affect cognitive performance in around 20% of the population. Although pollen season peaks when students take high-stakes exams, the effect of pollen allergies on school performance has received nearly no attention from economists. Using a student fixed effects model and administrative Norwegian data, this paper finds that increasing the ambient pollen levels by one standard deviation at the mean leads to a 2.5% standard deviation decrease in test scores, with potentially larger effects for allergic students. There also appear to be longer-run effects. The findings imply that random increases in pollen counts reduce test scores for allergic students relative to their peers, who consequently will be at a disadvantage when competing for jobs or higher education. This paper contributes to the literature by illuminating the interplay between individual health and human capital accumulation, which in turn can impact long-run economic growth. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wei, Youhua; Low, Albert
2017-01-01
In most large-scale programs of tests that aid in making high-stakes decisions, such as the "TOEIC"® family of products and service, it is not unusual for a significant portion of test takers to retake the test at multiple times.The study reported here used multilevel growth modeling to explore the score change patterns of nearly 20,000…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Graven, Mellony; Venkat, Hamsa
2014-01-01
In this paper we highlight teacher experiences of the administration of high-stakes testing, in particular, of the 2012 Annual National Assessments (ANAs). The exploration is based on data gathered across two primary numeracy teacher development projects in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng in the form of open-ended questionnaires designed to elicit…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Young, I. Phillip; Cox, Edward P.; Buckman, David G.
2014-01-01
To assess satisfactory job performance of superintendents on the basis of school districts' high-stakes testing outcomes, existing teacher models were reviewed and critiqued as potential options for retrofit. For these models, specific problems were identified relative to the choice of referent groups. An alternate referent group (statewide…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Saunders, Christina Henry
2017-01-01
The present study identifies reading instructional practices used in upper elementary classrooms during the age of high-stakes test accountability and compares reading practices among schools of varying accreditation status and socio-economic status (SES). The current study partially replicates and extends a study conducted by Baumann, Hoffman,…
Outlier Detection in High-Stakes Certification Testing.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meijer, Rob R.
2002-01-01
Used empirical data from a certification test to study methods from statistical process control that have been proposed to classify an item score pattern as fitting or misfitting the underlying item response theory model in computerized adaptive testing. Results for 1,392 examinees show that different types of misfit can be distinguished. (SLD)
Langenau, Erik E.; Pugliano, Gina; Roberts, William L.
2011-01-01
Background Responding to mandates from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and American Osteopathic Association (AOA), residency programs have developed competency-based assessment tools. One such tool is the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians (ACOP) program directors’ annual report. High-stakes clinical skills licensing examinations, such as the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination Level 2-Performance Evaluation (COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE), also assess competency in several clinical domains. Objective The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between program director competency ratings of first-year osteopathic residents in pediatrics and COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE scores from 2005 to 2009. Methods The sample included all 94 pediatric first-year residents who took COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE and whose training was reviewed by the ACOP for approval of training between 2005 and 2009. Program director competency ratings and COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE scores (domain and component) were merged and analyzed for relationships. Results Biomedical/biomechanical domain scores were positively correlated with overall program director competency ratings. Humanistic domain scores were not significantly correlated with overall program director competency ratings, but did show moderate correlation with ratings for interpersonal and communication skills. The six ACGME or seven AOA competencies assessed empirically by the ACOP program directors’ annual report could not be recovered by principal component analysis; instead, three factors were identified, accounting for 86% of the variance between competency ratings. Discussion A few significant correlations were noted between COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE scores and program director competency ratings. Exploring relationships between different clinical skills assessments is inherently difficult because of the heterogeneity of tools used and overlap of constructs within the AOA
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stricker, Lawrence J.; Rock, Donald A.; Bridgeman, Brent
2015-01-01
This study explores stereotype threat on low-stakes tests used in a large-scale assessment, math and reading tests in the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS). Issues identified in laboratory research (though not observed in studies of high-stakes tests) were assessed: whether inquiring about their race and gender is related to the…
The Machine Scoring of Writing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McCurry, Doug
2010-01-01
This article provides an introduction to the kind of computer software that is used to score student writing in some high stakes testing programs, and that is being promoted as a teaching and learning tool to schools. It sketches the state of play with machines for the scoring of writing, and describes how these machines work and what they do.…
Collaborative Testing: An Effective Invitational Strategy for High-Stakes Testing in Nursing.
Green, Rebecca; Worthey, Terri; Kerven, Jenny
2018-05-01
A collaborative testing intervention was designed as an application of the invitational education model in an undergraduate nursing course. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of collaborative testing on examination scores and knowledge retention of course content and to evaluate students' feelings about the collaborative testing process. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of collaborative testing on examination scores and knowledge retention among undergraduate nursing students in a public health course (N = 106). A descriptive survey was used to evaluate students' perceptions of the collaborative testing intervention. Collaborative testing increased examination scores and facilitated knowledge retention. Students' perceptions of the intervention were positive. Invitational strategies, such as collaborative testing, may result in measurably better outcomes, such as better examination scores and improved knowledge retention. Rigor does not need to be a barrier to invitational learning and, in fact, it may be complemented and enhanced by it. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(5):291-295.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dutro, Elizabeth; Selland, Makenzie
2012-01-01
A significant body of research articulates concerns about the current emphasis on high-stakes testing as the primary lever of education reform in the United States. However, relatively little research has focused on how children make sense of the assessment policies in which they are centrally located. In this article, we share analyses of…
Automated Simultaneous Assembly of Multistage Testlets for a High-Stakes Licensing Examination
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Breithaupt, Krista; Hare, Donovan R.
2007-01-01
Many challenges exist for high-stakes testing programs offering continuous computerized administration. The automated assembly of test questions to exactly meet content and other requirements, provide uniformity, and control item exposure can be modeled and solved by mixed-integer programming (MIP) methods. A case study of the computerized…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
De Lisle, Jerome; Smith, Peter; Keller, Carol; Jules, Vena
2012-01-01
High-stakes placement testing at eleven plus remains a central and constant feature of education systems in the Anglophone Caribbean. In the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Eleven Plus has been retained well into the era of universal secondary education, with a perceived legitimacy founded on the belief that examinations provide the fairest…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Glover, Todd A.; Reddy, Linda A.; Kettler, Ryan J.; Kunz, Alexander; Lekwa, Adam J.
2016-01-01
The accountability movement and high-stakes testing fail to attend to ongoing instructional improvements based on the regular assessment of student skills and teacher practices. Summative achievement data used for high-stakes accountability decisions are collected too late in the school year to inform instruction. This is especially problematic…
Performance of Students with Visual Impairments on High-Stakes Tests: A Pennsylvania Report Card
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fox, Lynn A.
2012-01-01
Students with disabilities participate in high-stakes assessments to meet NCLB's newer proficiency standards. This study explored performance in reading and math on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), Pennsylvania's grade-level assessment, to provide a foundational baseline on performance and accommodations used by students with…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Westfall, Dawn M.
2010-01-01
In Texas, fifth grade students are required to pass both the reading and math sections of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in order to be promoted to the next grade level. The purpose of this study is to describe parents' perceptions of the influence of the high-stakes TAKS test on the family lives of at-risk fifth grade…
Achieving Quality and Equity through Inclusive Education in an Era of High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Peters, Susan; Oliver, Laura Ann
2009-01-01
While great progress has been made by the international community to promote inclusive education for all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender or disability, many countries still continue to marginalize and exclude students in educational systems across the globe. High-stakes assessments in market-driven economies…
How Standardized Tests Shape--and Limit--Student Learning. A Policy Research Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Council of Teachers of English, 2014
2014-01-01
The term "standardized" tests is often heard along with "high-stakes." Standardized tests are administered, scored, and interpreted in a consistent way, so that the performances of large groups of students can be compared. They are not in themselves high-stakes, but they are often used for high-stakes purposes such as…
Contexts Matter: Two Teachers' Language Arts Instruction in This High-Stakes Era
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dooley, Caitlin McMunn; Assaf, Lori Czop
2009-01-01
This retrospective cross-case analysis compares two fourth-grade language arts teachers' beliefs and practices as they respond to an influx of high-stakes tests, including district-mandated benchmark testing systems. One teacher works in a suburban school, the other in an urban school. Results from the study show that the teachers' beliefs about…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Dale D.; Johnson, Bonnie
This book connects the educational conditions created by high-stakes testing to the students and teachers who are influenced or victimized by the currents driving this movement. The authors left their positions as teacher-educators and taught grades 3 and 4 for 1 year as regular teachers in one of America's most impoverished schools. Redbud…
High-Stakes Hustle: Public Schools and the New Billion Dollar Accountability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baines, Lawrence A.; Stanley, Gregory Kent
2004-01-01
High-stakes testing costs up to $50 billion per annum, has no impact on student achievement, and has changed the focus of American public schools. This article analyzes the benefits and costs of the accountability movement, as well as discusses its roots in the eugenics movements of the early 20th century.
Research Says…/High-Stakes Testing Narrows the Curriculum
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
David, Jane L.
2011-01-01
The current rationale for standards-based reform goes like this: If standards are demanding and tests accurately measure achievement of those standards, then curriculum and instruction will become richer and more rigorous. By attaching serious consequences to schools that fail to increase test scores, U.S. policymakers believe that educators will…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Akom, George Viche
2010-01-01
Formative assessment, as a strategy used to improve student learning, encounters several obstacles in its implementation. This study explores changes in teachers' views and practices as they are introduced to formative assessment in a high stakes testing and limited resource environment. The study examines the extent to which teachers use the…
Politics in evaluation: Politically responsive evaluation in high stakes environments.
Azzam, Tarek; Levine, Bret
2015-12-01
The role of politics has often been discussed in evaluation theory and practice. The political influence of the situation can have major effects on the evaluation design, approach and methods. Politics also has the potential to influence the decisions made from the evaluation findings. The current study focuses on the influence of the political context on stakeholder decision making. Utilizing a simulation scenario, this study compares stakeholder decision making in high and low stakes evaluation contexts. Findings suggest that high stakes political environments are more likely than low stakes environments to lead to reduced reliance on technically appropriate measures and increased dependence on measures better reflect the broader political environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The ability to detect deceit generalizes across different types of high-stake lies.
Frank, M G; Ekman, P
1997-06-01
The authors investigated whether accuracy in identifying deception from demeanor in high-stake lies is specific to those lies or generalizes to other high-stake lies. In Experiment 1, 48 observers judged whether 2 different groups of men were telling lies about a mock theft (crime scenario) or about their opinion (opinion scenario). The authors found that observers' accuracy in judging deception in the crime scenario was positively correlated with their accuracy in judging deception in the opinion scenario. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1, as well as P. Ekman and M. O'Sullivan's (1991) finding of a positive correlation between the ability to detect deceit and the ability to identify micromomentary facial expressions of emotion. These results show that the ability to detect high-stake lies generalizes across high-stake situations and is most likely due to the presence of emotional clues that betray deception in high-stake lies.
Academically Buoyant Students Are Less Anxious about and Perform Better in High-Stakes Examinations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Putwain, David W.; Daly, Anthony L.; Chamberlain, Suzanne; Sadreddini, Shireen
2015-01-01
Background: Prior research has shown that test anxiety is negatively related to academic buoyancy, but it is not known whether test anxiety is an antecedent or outcome of academic buoyancy. Furthermore, it is not known whether academic buoyancy is related to performance on high-stakes examinations. Aims: To test a model specifying reciprocal…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zoch, Melody
2017-01-01
This article examines how four urban elementary teachers designed their literacy instruction in ways that sought to sustain students' cultural competence--maintaining their language and cultural practices while also gaining access to more dominant ones--amid expectations to prepare students for high-stakes testing. A large part of their teaching…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
DeWitt, Scott W.; Patterson, Nancy; Blankenship, Whitney; Blevins, Brooke; DiCamillo, Lorrei; Gerwin, David; Gradwell, Jill M.; Gunn, John; Maddox, Lamont; Salinas, Cinthia; Saye, John; Stoddard, Jeremy; Sullivan, Caroline C.
2013-01-01
This study indicates that the state-mandated high-stakes social studies assessments in four states do not require students to demonstrate that they have met the cognitive demands articulated in the state-mandated learning standards. Further, the assessments do not allow students to demonstrate the critical thinking skills required by the…
How Parents Can Help Kids Improve Test Scores: Taking the Stakes out of Literacy Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schneider, Steven
2006-01-01
In order to meet the goals of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing is preeminent as the sole indicator determining whether states all across America demonstrate adequate yearly progress regarding the improvement of student achievement in literacy education. This book will help teachers and parents raise children's scores on standardized…
A Case Study of Middle School Teachers' Preparations for High-Stakes Assessments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yeary, David Lee
2017-01-01
Students, educators, and schools across the country have been presented with challenges as a result of rigorous standards and high-complexity tests. The problem addressed in this case study was that teachers in a rural middle school in a southeastern state were preparing students to take a new high-stakes state-mandated assessment in English…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fletcher-Bates, Keisha N.
2010-01-01
A valid concern facing School districts within the state of Ohio, as well as across the country, is situated around methods to increase student performance on standardized high stakes tests and achieve the requirements of the mandated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Law. Simultaneously, school districts are confronting a multitude of challenges to…
No Child Left Behind: Values and Research Issues in High-Stakes Assessments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Duffy, Maureen; Giordano, Victoria A.; Farrell, Jill B.; Paneque, Oneyda M.; Crump, Genae B.
2008-01-01
High-stakes testing and mandated assessments, which are major outcomes of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) contain multiple embedded values that affect the lives of students, their families, teachers, and counselors. A primary embedded value within the NCLB is the privileging of quantitative science over other methods of inquiry and…
High Stakes Assessment: A Local District Perspective.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Oldham, Ben R.
The Kentucky Education Reform Act legislated by the 1990 General Assembly created a high-stakes school performance accountability system to monitor the progress of implementation. One major component of the accountability system is a schedule of consequences designed to reward those schools making sufficient progress in improving student…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ferguson-Patrick, Kate
2018-01-01
Cooperative learning (CL) has a strong research base, but it is underutilised. This can be explained by teachers' reluctance to experiment with pedagogies in an environment increasingly focused on high-stakes testing. Early career teachers (ECTs) need support to be innovative practitioners, particularly with such a complex one as CL. The teacher's…
High Stakes Supervision: We Must Do More
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zepeda, Sally J.
2006-01-01
The characteristics of the emerging and existing teaching force are explored in relation to supervision Key trends that exacerbate teacher shortages include out-of-field teaching, increases in student population, critical subject-area shortages, attrition, and retirement. This paper calls for a high-stakes form of supervision as a long-term…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jerome, Diane C.
This study explored how science teachers and school administrators perceive the use of the affective domain during science instruction situated within a high-stakes testing environment. Through a multimethodological inquiry using phenomenology and critical ethnography, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with six fifth-grade science teachers and two administrators from two Texas school districts. Data reconstructions from interviews formed a bricolage of diagrams that trace the researcher's steps through a reflective exploration of these phenomena. This study addressed the following research questions: (a) What are the attitudes, interests, and values (affective domain) that fifth-grade science teachers integrate into science instruction? (b) How do fifth-grade science teachers attempt to integrate attitudes, interests and values (affective domain) in science instruction? and (c) How do fifth-grade science teachers manage to balance the tension from the seeming pressures caused by a high-stakes testing environment and the integration of attitudes, interests and values (affective domain) in science instruction? The findings from this study indicate that as teachers tried to integrate the affective domain during science instruction, (a) their work was set within a framework of institutional values, (b) teaching science for understanding looked different before and after the onset of the science Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), and (c) upon administration of the science TAKS---teachers broadened their aim, raised their expectations, and furthered their professional development. The integration of the affective domain fell into two distinct categories: 1) teachers targeted student affect and 2) teachers modeled affective behavior.
"Stakes is High": Educating New Century Students
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ladson-Billings, Gloria
2013-01-01
My apologies to iconic hip-hop artists, De La Soul for I have shamelessly appropriated the title, "Stakes is high" to underscore the importance of the work ahead for educators, students, parents, community members, and researchers as we attempt to develop a generation of what I call "new century" students for a world we can hardly imagine. Through…
Madrazo, Lorenzo; Lee, Claire B; McConnell, Meghan; Khamisa, Karima
2018-06-15
Physicians and medical students are generally poor-self assessors. Research suggests that this inaccuracy in self-assessment differs by gender among medical students whereby females underestimate their performance compared to their male counterparts. However, whether this gender difference in self-assessment is observable in low-stakes scenarios remains unclear. Our study's objective was to determine whether self-assessment differed between male and female medical students when compared to peer-assessment in a low-stakes objective structured clinical examination. Thirty-three (15 males, 18 females) third-year students participated in a 5-station mock objective structured clinical examination. Trained fourth-year student examiners scored their performance on a 6-point Likert-type global rating scale. Examinees also scored themselves using the same scale. To examine gender differences in medical students' self-assessment abilities, mean self-assessment global rating scores were compared with peer-assessment global rating scores using an independent samples t test. Overall, female students' self-assessment scores were significantly lower compared to peer-assessment (p < 0.001), whereas no significant difference was found between self- and peer-assessment scores for male examinees (p = 0.228). This study provides further evidence that underestimation in self-assessment among females is observable even in a low-stakes formative objective structured clinical examination facilitated by fellow medical students.
Is High-Stakes Testing Harming Lower Socioeconomic Status Schools?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cunningham, William G.; Sanzo, Tiffany D.
2002-01-01
A strong relationship is shown between students' state assessment test pass rates and students' socioeconomic status (SES). State sanctions based on assessment scores can affect graduation, student diplomas, school accreditation, school funding, teacher rewards and promotion, paperwork requirements, regulations, work expectations, improvement…
Comparison of wood preservatives in stake tests : 2011 progress report
Bessie M. Woodward; Cherilyn A. Hatfield; Stan T. Lebow
2011-01-01
This report covers stake test results primarily from Southern Pine 2- by 4- by 18-in. sapwood, treated by pressure and nonpressure processes and installed by Forest Products Laboratory employees and cooperators in decay and termite exposure sites at various times since 1938 at Saucier, Mississippi; Madison, Wisconsin; Bogalusa, Louisiana; Lake Charles, Louisiana;...
Effective Science Instruction: Impact on High-Stakes Assessment Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Carla C.; Zhang, Danhui; Kahle, Jane Butler
2012-01-01
This longitudinal prospective cohort study was conducted to determine the impact of effective science instruction on performance on high-stakes high school graduation assessments in science. This study provides powerful findings to support authentic science teaching to enhance long-term retention of learning and performance on state-mandated…
Middle-Grades Students' Understandings of What It Means to Read in a High-Stakes Environment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schaefer, Mary Beth
2017-01-01
In this practitioner inquiry, the teacher researcher found that a culture of high-stakes testing had pervaded her diverse, urban seventh-grade students' conceptions of reading; students associated reading with tests and skills-based worksheets rather than pleasure. Using students' voices, passions, and interests, the teacher researcher broadened…
Rethinking Validation in Complex High-Stakes Assessment Contexts
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koch, Martha J.; DeLuca, Christopher
2012-01-01
In this article we rethink validation within the complex contexts of high-stakes assessment. We begin by considering the utility of existing models for validation and argue that these models tend to overlook some of the complexities inherent to assessment use, including the multiple interpretations of assessment purposes and the potential…
Observations on the predictive value of short-term stake tests
Stan Lebow; Bessie Woodward; Patricia Lebow
2008-01-01
This paper compares average ratings of test stakes after 3, 4, 5, and 7 years exposure to their subsequent ratings after 11 years. Average ratings from over 200 treatment groups exposed in plots in southern Mississippi were compared to average ratings of a reference preservative. The analysis revealed that even perfect ratings after three years were not a reliable...
Outlier Detection in High-Stakes Certification Testing. Research Report.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meijer, Rob R.
Recent developments of person-fit analysis in computerized adaptive testing (CAT) are discussed. Methods from statistical process control are presented that have been proposed to classify an item score pattern as fitting or misfitting the underlying item response theory (IRT) model in a CAT. Most person-fit research in CAT is restricted to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ujifusa, Andrew
2012-01-01
As states begin to demand more rigor on their high-stakes tests--and the tests evolve to incorporate revised academic standards--many officials are gambling that an initial wave of lower scores will give way to greater student achievement in the future. Changes to statewide tests and subsequent plummeting scores sparked controversy and emergency…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yerdelen-Damar, Sevda; Elby, Andrew
2016-01-01
This study investigates how elite Turkish high school physics students claim to approach learning physics when they are simultaneously (i) engaged in a curriculum that led to significant gains in their epistemological sophistication and (ii) subject to a high-stakes college entrance exam. Students reported taking surface (rote) approaches to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Arendasy, Martin E.; Sommer, Markus
2012-01-01
The use of new test administration technologies such as computerized adaptive testing in high-stakes educational and occupational assessments demands large item pools. Classic item construction processes and previous approaches to automatic item generation faced the problems of a considerable loss of items after the item calibration phase. In this…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tempel, Melissa Bollow
2012-01-01
Computerized testing, including the widely used MAP test, has infiltrated the public schools in Milwaukee and across the nation, bringing with it a frightening future for public education. High-stakes standardized tests can be scored almost immediately via the internet, and testing companies can now easily link districts to their online data…
Adopting the edTPA as a High-Stakes Assessment: Resistance, Advocacy, and Reflection in Illinois
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Olson, Jennifer D.; Rao, Arthi B.
2017-01-01
The edTPA, a national performance assessment for teacher candidates, has seen rapid adoption across the country since its development in 2009. Against the national backdrop of high stakes testing and accountability, the edTPA was developed to be an indicator of teachers' readiness to teach. The varying perspectives and responses to edTPA in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dressman, Mark
2010-01-01
This cutting-edge guide presents multiple approaches to teaching poetry at the middle and high school levels. The author provides field-tested activities with detailed how-to instructions, as well as advice for how educators can "justify" their teaching within a high-stakes curriculum environment. "Let's Poem" will show pre- and inservice teachers…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McCollough, Cherie A.
The current reform movement in education has two forces that appear contradictory in nature. The first is an emphasis on rigor and accountability that is assessed through high-stakes testing. The second is the recommendation to have student centered approaches to teaching and learning, especially those that emphasize inquiry methodology and constructivist pedagogy. Literature reports that current reform efforts involving accountability through high-stakes tests are detrimental to student learning and are contradictory to student-centered teaching approaches. However, by focusing attention on those teachers who "teach against the grain" and raise the achievement levels of students from diverse backgrounds, instructional strategies and personal characteristics of exemplary teachers can be identified. This mixed-methods research study investigated four exemplary urban high school science teachers in high-stakes (TAKS) tested science classrooms. Classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, pre-/postcontent tests and the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) (Johnson & McClure, 2004) provided the main data sources. The How People Learn (National Research Council, 2000) theoretical framework provided evidence of elements of inquiry-based, student-centered teaching. Descriptive case analysis (Yin, 1994) and quantitative analysis of pre/post tests and the CLES revealed the following results. First, all participating teachers included elements of learner-centeredness, knowledge-centeredness, assessment-centeredness and community-centeredness in their teaching as recommended by the National Research Council, (2000), thus creating student-centered classroom environments. Second, by establishing a climate of caring where students felt supported and motivated to learn, teachers managed tensions resulting from the incorporation of student-centered elements and the accountability-based instructional mandates outlined by their school district and state
Analyzing the Efficacy of the Testing Effect Using Kahoot™ on Student Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Iwamoto, Darren H.; Hargis, Jace; Taitano, Erik Jon; Vuong, Ky
2017-01-01
Lower than expected high-stakes examination scores were being observed in a first-year general psychology class. This research sought an alternate approach that would assist students in preparing for high-stakes examinations. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of an alternate teaching approach based on the testing effect to…
A Case Study of Co-Teaching in an Inclusive Secondary High-Stakes World History I Classroom
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
van Hover, Stephanie; Hicks, David; Sayeski, Kristin
2012-01-01
In order to provide increasing support for students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms in high-stakes testing contexts, some schools have implemented co-teaching models. This qualitative case study explores how 1 special education teacher (Anna) and 1 general education history teacher (John) make sense of working together in an inclusive…
Negotiating the terrain of high-stakes accountability in science teaching
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Aronson, Isaak
Teachers interact with their students on behalf of the entire educational system. The aim of this study is to explore how biology teachers understand and construct their practice in a high-stakes accountability environment that is likely to be riddled with tensions. By critically questioning the technical paradigms of accountability this study challenges the fundamental assumptions of accountability. Such a critical approach may help teachers develop empowerment strategies that can free them from the de-skilling effects of the educational accountability system. This interpretive case study of a high-school in Maryland is grounded in three streams of research literature: quality science instruction based on scientific inquiry, the effects of educational accountability on the curriculum, and the influence of policy on classroom practice with a specific focus on how teachers balance competing tensions. This study theoretically occurs at the intersection of educational accountability and pedagogy. In terms of data collection, I conduct two interviews with all six biology teachers in the school. I observe each teacher for at least fifteen class periods. I review high-stakes accountability policy documents from the federal, state, and district levels of the education system. Three themes emerge from the research. The first theme, "re-defining science teaching," captures how deeply accountability structures have penetrated the science curriculum. The second theme, "the pressure mounts," explores how high-stakes accountability in science has increased the stress placed on teachers. The third theme, "teaching-in-between," explores how teachers compromise between accountability mandates and their own understandings of quality teaching. Together, the three themes shed light on the current high-stakes climate in which teachers currently work. This study's findings inform the myriad paradoxes at all levels of the educational system. As Congress and advocacy groups battle over
Large Stroke High Fidelity PZN-PT Single-Crystal "Stake" Actuator.
Huang, Yu; Xia, Yuexue; Lin, Dian Hua; Yao, Kui; Lim, Leong Chew
2017-10-01
A new piezoelectric actuator design, called "Stake" actuator, is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. As an example, the stake actuator is made of four d 32 -mode PZN-5.5%PT single crystals (SCs), each of 25 mm ( L ) ×8 mm ( W ) ×0.4 mm (T) in dimensions, bonded with the aid of polycarbonate edge guide-cum-stiffeners into a square-pipe configuration for improved bending and twisting strengths and capped with top and bottom pedestals made of 1.5-mm-thick anodized aluminum. The resultant stake actuator measured 9 mm ×9 mm ×28 mm. The hollow structure is a key design feature, which optimizes SC usage efficiency and lowers the overall cost of the actuator. The displacement-voltage responses, blocking forces, resonance characteristics of the fabricated stake actuator, as well as the load and temperature effects, are measured and discussed. Since d 32 is negative for [011]-poled SC, the "Stake" actuator contracts in the axial direction when a positive-polarity field is applied to the crystals. Biased drive is thus recommended when extensional displacement is desired. The SC stake actuator has negligible (<1%) hysteresis and a large linear strain range of >0.13% when driven up to +300 V (i.e., 0.75 kV/mm), which is close to the rhombohedral-to-orthorhombic transformation field ( E RO ) of 0.85 kV/mm of the SC used. The stake actuator displays a stroke of [Formula: see text] (at +300 V) despite its small overall dimensions, and has a blocking force of 114 N. The SC d 32 stake actuator fabricated displays more than 30% larger axial strain than the state-of-the-art PZT stack actuators of comparable length as well as moderate blocking forces. Said actuators are thus ideal for applications when large displacements with simple open-loop control are preferred.
"Because Then You Could Never Ever Get a Job!": Children's Constructions of NAPLAN as High-Stakes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Howell, Angelique
2017-01-01
In the midst of the debate surrounding the question of whether Australia's National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test is high-stakes, it is evident that children's own accounts of their experiences remain sparse. This paper describes the findings of a case study which documented the experiences of 105 children across two…
Understanding and Applying the QAR Strategy to Improve Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cummins, Sean; Streiff, Melissa; Ceprano, Maria
2012-01-01
The academic landscape has been changing over the last several years bringing with it an emphasis on high stakes testing. Studies conducted over the past several years that have shown the success of the Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR) strategy in helping students develop their comprehension skill. This study looks at the effects of the QAR…
High Schools and High Stakes Testing in California: Size and Income Do Matter
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rector, L. D.
2011-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of high schools, their percentage of SED (socio-economic disadvantaged) students, and API (academic performance index) scores in California, and determine if teacher preparation is a contributing factor. The 2010 API scores and median income of all 52 counties, and the 2010…
Rising Stars: High School's Change Process Produces Higher Test Scores.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McCown, Claire; Runnebaum, Robert
2001-01-01
Presents Bishop Ward High School (Kansas) as a case study that has seen great improvements in standardized testing results by changing its approach. States that realignment of curriculum, adjusting instructional strategies, and accommodating students with special needs are important aspects of raising assessment scores in high schools. (CJW)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Finney, Sara J.; Sundre, Donna L.; Swain, Matthew S.; Williams, Laura M.
2016-01-01
Accountability mandates often prompt assessment of student learning gains (e.g., value-added estimates) via achievement tests. The validity of these estimates have been questioned when performance on tests is low stakes for students. To assess the effects of motivation on value-added estimates, we assigned students to one of three test consequence…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Finney, Sara J.; Mathers, Catherine E.; Myers, Aaron J.
2016-01-01
Research investigating methods to influence examinee motivation during low-stakes assessment of student learning outcomes has involved manipulating test session instructions. The impact of instructions is often evaluated using a popular self-report measure of test-taking motivation. However, the impact of these manipulations on the psychometric…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Davis, Edward
This study investigated the relationship between an after-school tutorial program for African American high school students at a Title I school and scores on the science portion of the High School Graduation Examination (HSGE). Passing the examination was required for graduation. The target high school is 99% African American and the passing rate of the target high school was 42%---lower than the state average of 76%. The purpose of the study was to identify (a) the relationship between a science tutorial program and scores on the science portion of the HSGE, (b) the predictors of tutoring need by analyzing the relationship between biology grades and scores on the science portion of the HSGE, and (c) the findings between biology grades and scores on the science portion of the HSGE by analyzing the relationship between tutorial attendance and HSGE scores. The study was based on Piaget's cognitive constructivism, which implied the potential benefits of tutorials on high-stakes testing. This study used a 1-group pretest-posttest, quantitative methodology. Results showed a significant relationship between tutoring and scores on the biology portion of the HSGE. Results found no significant relationship between the tutorial attendance and the scores on the biology portion of the HSGE or between the biology grades and scores on the biology portion of the HSGE before tutoring. It has implications for positive social change by providing educational stakeholders with empirically-based guidance in determining the potential benefit of tutorial intervention strategies on high school graduation examination scores.
High stakes in INF verification
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Krepon, M.
1987-06-01
The stakes involved in negotiating INF verification arrangements are high. While these proposals deal only with intermediate-range ground-launched cruise and mobile missiles, if properly devised they could help pave the way for comprehensive limits on other cruise missiles and strategic mobile missiles. In contrast, poorly drafted monitoring provisions could compromise national industrial security and generate numerous compliance controversies. Any verification regime will require new openness on both sides, but that means significant risks as well as opportunities. US and Soviet negotiators could spend weeks, months, and even years working out in painstaking detail verification provisions for medium-range missiles. Alternatively, ifmore » the two sides wished to conclude an INF agreement quickly, they could defer most of the difficult verification issues to the strategic arms negotiations.« less
High Test Scores: The Wrong Road to National Economic Success
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baker, Keith
2011-01-01
A widely held view is that good schools are essential to a nation's international economic success and that high test scores on international tests of academic skills and knowledge indicate how good a nation's schools are. The widespread belief that good schools are an important contributor to a nation's economic success in the world is supported…
Science Scores in Title I Elementary Schools in North Georgia: A Project Study
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Frias, Ramon
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)'s emphasis of reading, language arts, and mathematics (RLA&M) and its de-emphasis of science has been a source of great concern among educators. Through an objectivist and constructionist framework, this study explored the unforeseen effects of the NCLB on public science education among Title I (TI) and non-Title I (NTI) students. The research questions focused on the effects of NCLB on Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores in the high-stakes subjects of reading, language arts, mathematics and the low stakes subject of science among TI and NTI 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in a north Georgia County during the 2010/2011 school year. This study also compared instructional time TI and NTI teachers dedicated to science. A causal-comparative quantitative methodology was used to analyze Georgia's public domain CRCT scores. Three independent-samples t tests showed that TI schools exhibited significantly lower Science CRCT scores than did NTI students at all grade levels (p < 0.0001). The data also showed CRCT scores in high-stakes subjects between TI and NTI students converging but science CRCT scores between TI and NTI students diverging. The self-report survey indicated no significant differences between TI and NTI teachers' instructional science time (t (107) = 1.49, p = 0.137). A teacher development project was designed to focus on improving teacher science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge through a formal introduction to the nature of science. With increasing global science competition, science is more relevant than ever, and communities need students with strong science foundations. Further study is recommended to analyze the factors associated with this science gap between TI and NTI students.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reeves, Edward B.
The system of high-stakes accountability in the Kentucky public schools raises the question of whether teachers and administrators should be held accountable if test scores are influenced by external factors over which educators have no control. This study investigates whether such external factors , or "contextual effects," bias the…
Comparison of Wood Preservatives in Stake Tests (1981 Progress Report).
1981-12-01
infected with Trichoderma mold, plus other selected species such as oak, Douglas-fir, and Engelmann spruce. Southern pine untreated control stakes...acetylated wood, cyanoethylated wood, that with thiamine destroyed, chemically modified wood, wood infected with Trichoderma mold, embedded fiberboard (western...14 toA4 41U(4 a ...- 44- Table 31.--Condition of southern pine stakes (2 x 4 in. nominal x 18 in.) of uninfected and Trichoderma mcid-infected wood
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McCarthy, Martha M.
2001-01-01
Concerns over students' and staff members' safety in public schools continue to mount-- manifested in zero-tolerance policies, stringent disciplinary practices, and efforts to implement drug-screening programs. Although "reasonable suspicion" for searches and drug testing is the watchword, courts cannot agree on definitions. Legalities…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wise, Steven L.; Owens, Kara M.; Yang, Sheng-Ta; Weiss, Brandi; Kissel, Hilary L.; Kong, Xiaojing; Horst, Sonia J.
2005-01-01
There are a variety of situations in which low-stakes achievement tests--which are defined as those having few or no consequences for examinee performance--are used in applied measurement. A problem inherent in such testing is that we often cannot assume that all examinees give their best effort to their test, which suggests that the test scores…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schwartz, Sarah M.; Evans, Cathy; Agur, Anne M.R.
2015-01-01
Students in health care professional programs face many stressful tests that determine successful completion of their program. Test anxiety during these high stakes examinations can affect working memory and lead to poor outcomes. Methods of decreasing test anxiety include lengthening the time available to complete examinations or evaluating…
Adapting Educational Measurement to the Demands of Test-Based Accountability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koretz, Daniel
2015-01-01
Accountability has become a primary function of large-scale testing in the United States. The pressure on educators to raise scores is vastly greater than it was several decades ago. Research has shown that high-stakes testing can generate behavioral responses that inflate scores, often severely. I argue that because of these responses, using…
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Bird, R. G.; Berson, L. A.
1983-01-01
Staking tool compact and portable. Tool combines clamping and staking operations in single unit. Tool clamps workpiece (a bearing or bushing), alines it, and stakes on of flat faces. Used for most roller staking operations which acess both faces of workpiece.
The Mediating Role of Textbooks in High-Stakes Assessment Reform
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Leung, Ching Yin; Andrews, Stephen
2012-01-01
Whenever high-stakes assessment/curriculum reforms take place, new textbooks appear on the market. These textbooks inevitably play a significant mediating role in the implementation of any reform and on teaching and learning. This paper reports on a small-scale study which attempts to investigate the role of textbooks in the mediation of a…
Investigating Changes in High-Stakes Mathematics Examinations: A Discursive Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Morgan, Candia; Sfard, Anna
2016-01-01
This article focuses on the theoretical-methodological question of how to identify reform-induced changes in school mathematics. The issue arose in our project The Evolution of the Discourse of School Mathematics (EDSM), in which we studied transformations in high-stakes examinations taken by students in England at the end of compulsory schooling.…
The Impact of SIM on FCAT Reading Scores of Special Education and At-Risk Students
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Matyo-Cepero, Jude
2013-01-01
The purpose of this study was to determine if special education and at-risk students educated exclusively in a school-within-a-school setting showed improved high-stakes standardized reading test scores after learning the strategic instruction model (SIM) inference strategy. This study was focused on four groups of eighth-grade students attending…
High-Stakes Testing in Education: Science and Practice in K-12 Settings
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bovaird, James A., Ed.; Geisinger, Kurt F., Ed.; Buckendahl, Chad W., Ed.
2011-01-01
Educational assessment and, more broadly, educational research in the United States have entered into an era characterized by a dramatic increase in the prevalence and importance of test score use in accountability systems. This volume covers a selection of contemporary issues about testing science and practice that impact the nation's public…
Can Tracking Raise the Test Scores of High-Ability Minority Students?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Card, David; Giuliano, Laura
2016-01-01
We evaluate a tracking program in a large urban district where schools with at least one gifted fourth grader create a separate "gifted/high achiever" classroom. Most seats are filled by non-gifted high achievers, ranked by previous-year test scores. We study the program's effects on the high achievers using (1) a rank-based regression…
Impact of Accumulated Error on Item Response Theory Pre-Equating with Mixed Format Tests
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Keller, Lisa A.; Keller, Robert; Cook, Robert J.; Colvin, Kimberly F.
2016-01-01
The equating of tests is an essential process in high-stakes, large-scale testing conducted over multiple forms or administrations. By adjusting for differences in difficulty and placing scores from different administrations of a test on a common scale, equating allows scores from these different forms and administrations to be directly compared…
Sex Differences in the Tendency to Omit Items on Multiple-Choice Tests: 1980-2000
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
von Schrader, Sarah; Ansley, Timothy
2006-01-01
Much has been written concerning the potential group differences in responding to multiple-choice achievement test items. This discussion has included references to possible disparities in tendency to omit such test items. When test scores are used for high-stakes decision making, even small differences in scores and rankings that arise from male…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Barry, Carol L.; Finney, Sara J.
2016-01-01
We examined change in test-taking effort over the course of a three-hour, five test, low-stakes testing session. Latent growth modeling results indicated that change in test-taking effort was well-represented by a piecewise growth form, wherein effort increased from test 1 to test 4 and then decreased from test 4 to test 5. There was significant…
Li, Feiming; Kalinowski, Kevin E; Song, Hao; Bates, Bruce P
2014-09-01
The relationship between the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Achievement Test (COMAT) series of subject examinations and the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination-USA Level 2-Cognitive Evaluation (COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE) has not been thoroughly examined. To investigate the factors associated with performance on COMAT subject examinations and how COMAT scores correlate with COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores. We examined scores of participants from 2 COMAT examination cycles in 2011 and 2012. According to surveys, most schools used COMAT scores in clerkship and clinical rotation evaluation, which were classified as being used for "high-stakes" purposes. We matched first-attempt COMAT scores with first-attempt COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores, and we conducted correlation analyses between the scores from the 7 COMAT subject examinations, as well as between COMAT and COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to investigate how much variance in COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores was explained by COMAT scores. In 2011 and 2012, respectively, 3751 and 3786 COMAT candidates had COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores (53.0% and 93.9%, respectively, had ⩾1 high-stakes COMAT score). Intercorrelations between COMAT scores were low to moderate (r=0.27-0.53), as hypothesized. Correlations between COMAT and Level 2-CE scores were moderate to high, with the highest correlations for internal medicine COMAT scores (r=0.63-0.65). All regressions showed internal medicine scores as the strongest predictor of Level 2-CE performance. Groups with high-stakes scores had larger adjusted coefficients of determination than those with low-stakes scores (eg, R(2)=0.63 vs 0.52, respectively, in 2011). For 2012 candidates with high-stakes scores, all predictors were statistically significant. The COMAT subject examination scores were moderately intercorrelated, as hypothesized, with higher correlations between COMAT and COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE scores. The COMAT
The High-Stakes Effects of "Low-Stakes" Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Papay, John P.; Murnane, Richard J.; Willett, John B.
2011-01-01
In this paper, the authors examine how information that students receive about their academic performance affects their decisions to enroll in post-secondary education. In particular, they look at one specific piece of data--student performance on the state standardized mathematics test in grades 8 and 10 in Massachusetts. One key feature of such…
Testing for Accountability: A Balancing Act That Challenges Current Testing Practices and Theories
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brennan, Robert L.
2015-01-01
Koretz, in his article published in this issue, provides compelling arguments that the high stakes currently associated with accountability testing lead to behavioral changes in students, teachers, and other stakeholders that often have negative consequences, such as inflated scores. Koretz goes on to argue that these negative consequences require…
A Balanced School Accountability Model: An Alternative to High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, Ken
2004-01-01
This article asserts that the health of public schools depends on defining a new model of accountability--one that is balanced and comprehensive. This new model needs be one that involves much more than test scores. This article outlines the premises behind this argument asking for what, to whom, and by what means schools should be held…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rubin, Daniel Ian
2011-01-01
There has been a universal movement towards government-regulated standardisation and high-stakes assessment. In the United States, this has resulted in the No Child Left Behind Act (2001). Because of the predominant focus on high-stakes reading and writing assessments required by NCLB, teachers in the subject area of English/Language Arts (ELA)…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sharkey, Patrick; Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Ellen, Ingrid Gould; Lacoe, Johanna
2013-01-01
This paper examines the effect of exposure to violent crime on students' standardized test performance among a sample of students in New York City public schools. To identify the effect of exposure to community violence on children's test scores, we compare students exposed to an incident of violent crime on their own blockface in the week prior…
ACT/SAT Test Preparation and Coaching Programs. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
What Works Clearinghouse, 2016
2016-01-01
Most colleges and universities in the United States require students to take the SAT or ACT as part of the college application process. These tests are high stakes in at least three ways. First, most universities factor scores on these tests into admissions decisions. Second, higher scores can increase a student's chances of being admitted to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Feniger, Yariv; Israeli, Mirit; Yehuda, Smadar
2016-01-01
The use of standardised tests as a central tool in education policy has in recent decades become a common feature of many national education systems. In 2002 the Israeli Ministry of Education introduced new mandatory state tests for primary and middle schools. The article describes the adoption of these low-stakes tests and assesses their impact…
Tavakol, Mohsen; Dennick, Reg
2012-01-01
As great emphasis is rightly placed upon the importance of assessment to judge the quality of our future healthcare professionals, it is appropriate not only to choose the most appropriate assessment method, but to continually monitor the quality of the tests themselves, in a hope that we may continually improve the process. This article stresses the importance of quality control mechanisms in the exam cycle and briefly outlines some of the key psychometric concepts including reliability measures, factor analysis, generalisability theory and item response theory. The importance of such analyses for the standard setting procedures is emphasised. This article also accompanies two new AMEE Guides in Medical Education (Tavakol M, Dennick R. Post-examination Analysis of Objective Tests: AMEE Guide No. 54 and Tavakol M, Dennick R. 2012. Post examination analysis of objective test data: Monitoring and improving the quality of high stakes examinations: AMEE Guide No. 66) which provide the reader with practical examples of analysis and interpretation, in order to help develop valid and reliable tests.
Colbert-Getz, Jorie M; Fleishman, Carol; Jung, Julianna; Shilkofski, Nicole
2013-01-01
Research suggests that medical students are not accurate in self-assessment, but it is not clear whether students over- or underestimate their skills or how certain characteristics correlate with accuracy in self-assessment. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of gender and anxiety on accuracy of students' self-assessment and on actual performance in the context of a high-stakes assessment. Prior to their fourth year of medical school, two classes of medical students at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine completed a required clinical skills exam in fall 2010 and 2011, respectively. Two hundred two students rated their anxiety in anticipation of the exam and predicted their overall scores in the history taking and physical examination performance domains. A self-assessment deviation score was calculated by subtracting each student's predicted score from his or her score as rated by standardized patients. When students self-assessed their data gathering performance, there was a weak negative correlation between their predicted scores and their actual scores on the examination. Additionally, there was an interaction effect of anxiety and gender on both self-assessment deviation scores and actual performance. Specifically, females with high anxiety were more accurate in self-assessment and achieved higher actual scores compared with males with high anxiety. No differences by gender emerged for students with moderate or low anxiety. Educators should take into account not only gender but also the role of emotion, in this case anxiety, when planning interventions to help improve accuracy of students' self-assessment.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zilberberg, Anna; Finney, Sara J.; Marsh, Kimberly R.; Anderson, Robin D.
2014-01-01
Given worldwide prevalence of low-stakes testing for monitoring educational quality and students' progress through school (e.g., Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, Program for International Student Assessment), interpretability of resulting test scores is of global concern. The nonconsequential nature of low-stakes tests…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sawyer, Richard
2013-01-01
Correlational evidence suggests that high school GPA is better than admission test scores in predicting first-year college GPA, although test scores have incremental predictive validity. The usefulness of a selection variable in making admission decisions depends in part on its predictive validity, but also on institutions' selectivity and…
Correlates of Cooperation in a One-Shot High-Stakes Televised Prisoners' Dilemma
Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N.; West, Stuart A.
2012-01-01
Explaining cooperation between non-relatives is a puzzle for both evolutionary biology and the social sciences. In humans, cooperation is often studied in a laboratory setting using economic games such as the prisoners' dilemma. However, such experiments are sometimes criticized for being played for low stakes and by misrepresentative student samples. Golden balls is a televised game show that uses the prisoners' dilemma, with a diverse range of participants, often playing for very large stakes. We use this non-experimental dataset to investigate the factors that influence cooperation when “playing” for considerably larger stakes than found in economic experiments. The game show has earlier stages that allow for an analysis of lying and voting decisions. We found that contestants were sensitive to the stakes involved, cooperating less when the stakes were larger in both absolute and relative terms. We also found that older contestants were more likely to cooperate, that liars received less cooperative behavior, but only if they told a certain type of lie, and that physical contact was associated with reduced cooperation, whereas laughter and promises were reliable signals or cues of cooperation, but were not necessarily detected. PMID:22485141
Correlates of cooperation in a one-shot high-stakes televised prisoners' dilemma.
Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N; West, Stuart A
2012-01-01
Explaining cooperation between non-relatives is a puzzle for both evolutionary biology and the social sciences. In humans, cooperation is often studied in a laboratory setting using economic games such as the prisoners' dilemma. However, such experiments are sometimes criticized for being played for low stakes and by misrepresentative student samples. Golden balls is a televised game show that uses the prisoners' dilemma, with a diverse range of participants, often playing for very large stakes. We use this non-experimental dataset to investigate the factors that influence cooperation when "playing" for considerably larger stakes than found in economic experiments. The game show has earlier stages that allow for an analysis of lying and voting decisions. We found that contestants were sensitive to the stakes involved, cooperating less when the stakes were larger in both absolute and relative terms. We also found that older contestants were more likely to cooperate, that liars received less cooperative behavior, but only if they told a certain type of lie, and that physical contact was associated with reduced cooperation, whereas laughter and promises were reliable signals or cues of cooperation, but were not necessarily detected.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
De Lisle, Jerome; McMillan-Solomon, Sabrina
2017-01-01
This study was designed to uncover and evaluate unintended and indirect consequences of using the "Secondary Entrance Assessment" ("SEA") in Trinidad and Tobago for high-stakes selection and placement. A major argument is that the test-taker is central to consequences, both intended and unintended. Data were obtained from…
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2009-09-01
This report summarizes the analysis of laser welded steel sandwich panels for use in bridge structures and : static testing of laser stake welded lap shear coupons. Steel sandwich panels consist of two face sheets : connected by a relatively low-dens...
Is Test Anxiety a Peril for Students with Intellectual Disabilities?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Datta, Poulomee
2013-01-01
Test anxiety is one of the most confronting issues in modern times with the increase in the number of standardised and high-stakes testing. Research has established that there is a direct link between test anxiety and cognitive deficits. The aim of this study is to determine the test anxiety scores of the students with intellectual disabilities in…
Misidentifying Factors Underlying Singapore's High Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Usiskin, Zalman
2012-01-01
Singapore students have scored exceedingly well on international tests in mathematics. In response, there has been a desire in the United States--both at the policy level and at the school level--to emulate Singapore. Because what can be identified most easily about Singapore's school mathematics can be gleaned from curriculum documents from the…
Comparability of Computer Delivered versus Traditional Paper and Pencil Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Strader, Douglas A.
2012-01-01
There are many advantages supporting the use of computers as an alternate mode of delivery for high stakes testing: cost savings, increased test security, flexibility in test administrations, innovations in items, and reduced scoring time. The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of computers as the mode of delivery had any…
Achievement Testing in the No Child Left Behind Era: The Arkansas Benchmark
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hall, John D.; Howerton, D. Lynn; Jones, Craig H.
2008-01-01
The No Child Left Behind Act and the accountability movement in public education caused many states to develop criterion-referenced academic achievement tests. Scores from these tests are often used to make high stakes decisions. Even so, these tests typically do not receive independent psychometric scrutiny. We evaluated the 2005 Arkansas…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tan, May; Turner, Carolyn E.
2015-01-01
In Quebec the high-stakes Secondary Five ESL exit writing exam developed by the Education Ministry (MELS) is administered and corrected by classroom teachers. In this distinctive situation, the MELS works toward aligning classroom-based assessment (CBA) and the writing exam by making ongoing teacher involvement part of its development and…
Stakes High for States in Fall Votes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McNeil, Michele
2006-01-01
This article reports how the stakes are getting higher for the various states as the 2006 state elections are approaching this fall. This article also discusses how the future of education policy will be heavily influenced by the votes cast in the November elections. Even with the heightened federal role under the No Child Left Behind Act, state…
Field assessment of wood stake decomposition in forest soil
Xiping Wang; Deborah Page-Dumroese; Martin F. Jurgensen; Robert J. Ross
2007-01-01
A pulse-echo acoustic method was investigated for evaluating wood stake decomposition in the field. A total of 58 wood stakes (29 loblolly pine, Pinus taeda, and 29 aspen, Populus tremuloides) that were vertically installed (full length) in forest soils were non-destructively tested by means of a laboratory-type acoustic...
Do Gains in Test Scores Explain Labor Market Outcomes?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rose, Heather
2006-01-01
Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, this article investigates whether students who made relatively large test score gains during high school had larger earnings 7 years after high school compared to students whose scores improved little. In models that control for pre-high school test scores, family background, and…
Investigation of Response Changes in the GRE Revised General Test
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liu, Ou Lydia; Bridgeman, Brent; Gu, Lixiong; Xu, Jun; Kong, Nan
2015-01-01
Research on examinees' response changes on multiple-choice tests over the past 80 years has yielded some consistent findings, including that most examinees make score gains by changing answers. This study expands the research on response changes by focusing on a high-stakes admissions test--the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning measures…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boudreaux, Wilbert
2011-01-01
Educational stakeholders are aware that school administration has become an incredibly intricate dynamic that is too complex for principals to handle alone. Test-driven accountability has made the already daunting task of school administration even more challenging. Distributed leadership presents an opportunity to explore increased leadership…
High-Stakes Accountability and Contextual Effects: An Empirical Study of the Fairness Issue.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reeves, Edward B.
2000-01-01
Studied whether high-stakes accountability measures are fair to all school systems despite disparities of wealth, community mores, and geographic location using data from Kentucky school districts including grade-level accountability data. Results help alleviate concerns about bias when using within-district gains to decide accountability, but…
Politics of Education and Teachers' Support for High-Stakes Teacher Accountability Policies
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pizmony-Levy, Oren; Woolsey, Ashley
2017-01-01
Although educators are at the center of contentious high-stakes teacher accountability policies, we know very little about their attitudes toward these policies. This research gap is unfortunate because teachers are considered key actors in successful implementation of educational reforms. To what extent do the politics that accompany the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thorburn, Malcom
2007-01-01
Background: In earlier papers, some of the teaching, learning and attainment issues encountered by Physical Education (PE) teachers and students in a high-stakes school examination, Higher Still Physical Education in Scotland, were analysed. A review of results and comparisons with Advanced Level awards in England and Board of Senior Secondary…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Kary A.; Wilson, Celia M.; Williams-Rossi, Dara
2013-01-01
This exploratory study investigated how reading comprehension was conceptualized on the new high-stakes test, the 2011-2012 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Specifically, comprehension, rate, and accuracy scores on the Gray Oral Reading Test 4 (GORT-4) from a group of struggling, low-SES, Hispanic middle school students (n…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baker, Richard Allen, Jr.
2011-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine the policy implications allowing administrators to exempt a student from required arts instruction if the student obtained unsatisfactory scores on the high-stake state mandated tests in English and mathematics. This study examined English language arts and math test scores for 37,222 eighth grade students…
New Times, New Stakes: Moments of Transit, Accountability, and Classroom Practice
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Helfenbein, Robert J., Jr.
2004-01-01
In order to understand the relationship between high-stakes testing and its synonymous projection on history as the "age of accountability," Stuart Hall's Policing the Crisis (Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke, & Roberts, 1978) provides an interesting parallel depiction of the response of the dominant forces in the power structure to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Trujillo, Tina M.
2013-01-01
This case study of an urban school board's experiences under high-stakes accountability demonstrates how the district leaders eschewed democratic governance processes in favor of autocratic behaviors. They possessed narrowly defined goals for teaching and learning that emphasized competitive, individualized means of achievement. Their decision…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wilkins, M. Elaine
2012-01-01
In 2001, No Child Left Behind introduced the highly qualified status for k-12 teachers, which mandated the successful scores on a series of high-stakes test; within this series is the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) or PRAXIS I. The PPST measures basic k-12 skills for reading, writing, and mathematics. The mathematics sub-test is a national…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grissom, Jason A.; Loeb, Susanna
2017-01-01
Teacher effectiveness varies substantially, yet principals' evaluations of teachers often fail to differentiate performance among teachers. We offer new evidence on principals' subjective evaluations of their teachers' effectiveness using two sources of data from a large, urban district: principals' high-stakes personnel evaluations of teachers,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Norris, Trevor
2015-01-01
What is at stake in high school philosophy education, and why? Why is it a good idea to teach philosophy at this level? This essay seeks to address some issues that arose in revising the Ontario grade 12 philosophy curriculum documents, significant insights from philosophy teacher education, and some early results of recent research funded by the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lynch, Christopher D.
2015-01-01
This study examined the relationship between the 2013 New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) Language Arts and Mathematics scores and school level data related to family human capital and community social capital found in the extant literature to influence student achievement on high-stakes standardized assessments. School level data…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Behizadeh, Nadia; Engelhard, George, Jr.
2015-01-01
In his focus article, Koretz (this issue) argues that accountability has become the primary function of large-scale testing in the United States. He then points out that tests being used for accountability purposes are flawed and that the high-stakes nature of these tests creates a context that encourages score inflation. Koretz is concerned about…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Karen A.
2013-01-01
The enactment of No Child Left Behind (2002) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act had a significant impact upon how we hold schools and its students accountable for high stakes testing. In particular, students with educational disabilities who were previously exempted from any performance accountability on…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Klinger, Don A.; Rogers, W. Todd
2003-01-01
The estimation accuracy of procedures based on classical test score theory and item response theory (generalized partial credit model) were compared for examinations consisting of multiple-choice and extended-response items. Analysis of British Columbia Scholarship Examination results found an error rate of about 10 percent for both methods, with…
Role of test motivation in intelligence testing.
Duckworth, Angela Lee; Quinn, Patrick D; Lynam, Donald R; Loeber, Rolf; Stouthamer-Loeber, Magda
2011-05-10
Intelligence tests are widely assumed to measure maximal intellectual performance, and predictive associations between intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and later-life outcomes are typically interpreted as unbiased estimates of the effect of intellectual ability on academic, professional, and social life outcomes. The current investigation critically examines these assumptions and finds evidence against both. First, we examined whether motivation is less than maximal on intelligence tests administered in the context of low-stakes research situations. Specifically, we completed a meta-analysis of random-assignment experiments testing the effects of material incentives on intelligence-test performance on a collective 2,008 participants. Incentives increased IQ scores by an average of 0.64 SD, with larger effects for individuals with lower baseline IQ scores. Second, we tested whether individual differences in motivation during IQ testing can spuriously inflate the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes. Trained observers rated test motivation among 251 adolescent boys completing intelligence tests using a 15-min "thin-slice" video sample. IQ score predicted life outcomes, including academic performance in adolescence and criminal convictions, employment, and years of education in early adulthood. After adjusting for the influence of test motivation, however, the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes was significantly diminished, particularly for nonacademic outcomes. Collectively, our findings suggest that, under low-stakes research conditions, some individuals try harder than others, and, in this context, test motivation can act as a third-variable confound that inflates estimates of the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes.
Role of test motivation in intelligence testing
Duckworth, Angela Lee; Quinn, Patrick D.; Lynam, Donald R.; Loeber, Rolf; Stouthamer-Loeber, Magda
2011-01-01
Intelligence tests are widely assumed to measure maximal intellectual performance, and predictive associations between intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and later-life outcomes are typically interpreted as unbiased estimates of the effect of intellectual ability on academic, professional, and social life outcomes. The current investigation critically examines these assumptions and finds evidence against both. First, we examined whether motivation is less than maximal on intelligence tests administered in the context of low-stakes research situations. Specifically, we completed a meta-analysis of random-assignment experiments testing the effects of material incentives on intelligence-test performance on a collective 2,008 participants. Incentives increased IQ scores by an average of 0.64 SD, with larger effects for individuals with lower baseline IQ scores. Second, we tested whether individual differences in motivation during IQ testing can spuriously inflate the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes. Trained observers rated test motivation among 251 adolescent boys completing intelligence tests using a 15-min “thin-slice” video sample. IQ score predicted life outcomes, including academic performance in adolescence and criminal convictions, employment, and years of education in early adulthood. After adjusting for the influence of test motivation, however, the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes was significantly diminished, particularly for nonacademic outcomes. Collectively, our findings suggest that, under low-stakes research conditions, some individuals try harder than others, and, in this context, test motivation can act as a third-variable confound that inflates estimates of the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes. PMID:21518867
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hawthorne, Katrice A.; Bol, Linda; Pribesh, Shana; Suh, Yonghee
2015-01-01
Increased demands for accountability have placed an emphasis on assessment of student learning outcomes. At the post-secondary level, many of the assessments are considered low-stakes, as student performance is linked to few, if any, individual consequences. Given the prevalence of low-stakes assessment of student learning, research that…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brown, Christopher P.; Bay-Borelli, Debra E.; Scott, Jill
2015-01-01
High-stakes education reforms across the United States and the globe continue to alter the landscape of teaching and teacher education. One key but understudied aspect of this reform process is the experiences of first-year teachers, particularly those who participated in these high-stakes education systems as students and as a…
Is This Going to Be on the Test? No Child Left Creative
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McCarthy, Cheryl; Blake, Sally
2017-01-01
The role of teachers in fostering creative processes in children is essential. However, high stakes instruction and teaching to the test inundates our current classrooms. This study explores the relationship between ACT/SAT scores and creativity among pre-service teachers. One hundred eighteen undergraduate students identified as Education majors…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rawlusyk, Kevin James
Test items used to assess learners' knowledge on high-stakes science examinations contain contextualized questions that unintentionally assess reading skill along with conceptual knowledge. Therefore, students who are not proficient readers are unable to comprehend the text within the test item to demonstrate effectively their level of science knowledge. The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand what reading attributes were required to successfully answer the Biology 30 Diploma Exam. Furthermore, the research sought to understand the cognitive relationships among the reading attributes through quantitative analysis structured by the Attribute Hierarchy Model (AHM). The research consisted of two phases: (1) Cognitive development, where the cognitive attributes of the Biology 30 Exam were specified and hierarchy structures were developed; and (2) Psychometric analysis, that statistically tested the attribute hierarchy using the Hierarchy Consistency Index (HCI), and calculate attribute probabilities. Phase one of the research used January 2011, Biology 30 Diploma Exam, while phase two accessed archival data for the 9985 examinees who took the assessment on January 24th, 2011. Phase one identified ten specific reading attributes, of which five were identified as unique subsets of vocabulary, two were identified as reading visual representations, and three corresponded to general reading skills. Four hierarchical cognitive model were proposed then analyzed using the HCI as a mechanism to explain the relationship among the attributes. Model A had the highest HCI value (0.337), indicating an overall poor data fit, yet for the top achieving examinees the model had an excellent model fit with an HCI value of 0.888, and for examinees that scored over 60% there was a moderate model fit (HCI = 0.592). Linear regressions of the attribute probability estimates suggest that there is a cognitive relationship among six of the ten reading attributes (R2 = 0.958 and 0
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Karami, Hossein
2013-01-01
There has been a growing consensus among the educational measurement experts and psychometricians that test taker characteristics may unduly affect the performance on tests. This may lead to construct-irrelevant variance in the scores and thus render the test biased. Hence, it is incumbent on test developers and users alike to provide evidence…
Negotiating the Literacy Block: Constructing Spaces for Critical Literacy in a High Stakes Setting
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Paugh, Patricia; Carey, Jane; King-Jackson, Valerie; Russell, Shelley
2007-01-01
This article focuses on the evolution of the classroom literacy block as a learning space where teachers and students renegotiated activities for independent vocabulary and word work within a high-stakes reform environment. When a second grade classroom teacher and literacy support specialist decided to co-teach, they invited all students in the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rooney, Erin
2015-01-01
This article explores teachers' experiences under high-stakes accountability and shows how the narrowing of curriculum depleted teachers' intrinsic work rewards. The article analyzes data from an ethnographic study of teachers' work in two high-poverty urban public schools. The study shows that as instructional mandates emphasized a narrowed…
Automated essay scoring and the future of educational assessment in medical education.
Gierl, Mark J; Latifi, Syed; Lai, Hollis; Boulais, André-Philippe; De Champlain, André
2014-10-01
Constructed-response tasks, which range from short-answer tests to essay questions, are included in assessments of medical knowledge because they allow educators to measure students' ability to think, reason, solve complex problems, communicate and collaborate through their use of writing. However, constructed-response tasks are also costly to administer and challenging to score because they rely on human raters. One alternative to the manual scoring process is to integrate computer technology with writing assessment. The process of scoring written responses using computer programs is known as 'automated essay scoring' (AES). An AES system uses a computer program that builds a scoring model by extracting linguistic features from a constructed-response prompt that has been pre-scored by human raters and then, using machine learning algorithms, maps the linguistic features to the human scores so that the computer can be used to classify (i.e. score or grade) the responses of a new group of students. The accuracy of the score classification can be evaluated using different measures of agreement. Automated essay scoring provides a method for scoring constructed-response tests that complements the current use of selected-response testing in medical education. The method can serve medical educators by providing the summative scores required for high-stakes testing. It can also serve medical students by providing them with detailed feedback as part of a formative assessment process. Automated essay scoring systems yield scores that consistently agree with those of human raters at a level as high, if not higher, as the level of agreement among human raters themselves. The system offers medical educators many benefits for scoring constructed-response tasks, such as improving the consistency of scoring, reducing the time required for scoring and reporting, minimising the costs of scoring, and providing students with immediate feedback on constructed-response tasks. © 2014
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Newhouse, C. Paul
2015-01-01
This paper reports on the outcomes of a three-year study investigating the use of digital technologies to increase the authenticity of high-stakes summative assessment in four Western Australian senior secondary courses. The study involved 82 teachers and 1015 students and a range of digital forms of assessment using computer-based exams, digital…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Starr, Joshua P.; Spellings, Margaret
2014-01-01
More than 40 states plan to assess student performance with new tests tied to the Common Core State Standards. In summer 2013, results from Common Core-aligned tests in New York showed a steep decline in outcomes. Common Core advocates hailed the scores as an honest accounting of school and student performance, while others worried that they…
High-Stakes & Assessment Innovation: A Negative Correlation? Research Report.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ananda, Sri; Rabinowitz, Stanley
This paper makes the case that, as implemented so far, there has been an inverse correlation between innovation and accountability in statewide assessment systems. The higher the stakes attached to the assessment results, the more conservative the assessment methodology ultimately used. Case studies of two state assessment programs were carried…
Lee, Yi-Hsuan; von Davier, Alina A
2013-07-01
Maintaining a stable score scale over time is critical for all standardized educational assessments. Traditional quality control tools and approaches for assessing scale drift either require special equating designs, or may be too time-consuming to be considered on a regular basis with an operational test that has a short time window between an administration and its score reporting. Thus, the traditional methods are not sufficient to catch unusual testing outcomes in a timely manner. This paper presents a new approach for score monitoring and assessment of scale drift. It involves quality control charts, model-based approaches, and time series techniques to accommodate the following needs of monitoring scale scores: continuous monitoring, adjustment of customary variations, identification of abrupt shifts, and assessment of autocorrelation. Performance of the methodologies is evaluated using manipulated data based on real responses from 71 administrations of a large-scale high-stakes language assessment.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Matsummura, Lindsay Clare; Wang, Elaine
2014-01-01
In the present exploratory qualitative study we examine the contextual factors that influenced the implementation of a multi-year comprehensive literacy-coaching program (Content-Focused Coaching, CFC). We argue that principals' sensemaking of the dialogic instructional strategies promoted by the program in light of high-stakes accountability…
Students, Parents, and Teachers Say, "Take This Test and Shove It!"
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Spritzler, John
2000-01-01
Public school students, parents, and teachers are protesting "high stakes" standardized tests that bar many deserving students from promotion or graduation. A typical high stakes test is a state-mandated 10th-grade test that students must pass to graduate high school. They are called high stakes because a student's entire high school career rides…
Schwartz, Sarah M; Evans, Cathy; Agur, Anne M R
2015-01-01
Students in health care professional programs face many stressful tests that determine successful completion of their program. Test anxiety during these high stakes examinations can affect working memory and lead to poor outcomes. Methods of decreasing test anxiety include lengthening the time available to complete examinations or evaluating students using untimed examinations. There is currently no consensus in the literature regarding whether untimed examinations provide a benefit to test performance in clinical anatomy. This study aimed to determine the impact of timed versus untimed practical tests on Master of Physical Therapy student anatomy performance and test anxiety. Test anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Differences in performance, anxiety scores, and time taken were compared using paired sample Student's t-tests. Eighty-one of the 84 students completed the study and provided feedback. Students performed significantly higher on the untimed test (P = 0.005), with a significant reduction in test anxiety (P < 0.001). Students who were unsuccessful on the timed test showed the greatest improvement on the untimed test ( x¯ = 20.4 ±10%). Eighty-three percent (n = 69) of students preferred the untimed test, 8.4% (n = 7) the timed test, and 8.4% (n = 7) had no preference. Students took on average eight minutes longer on the untimed test. This study found that physical therapy students perform better on untimed tests, which may be related to a reduction in test anxiety. If the intended goal of evaluating health care professional students is to determine fundamental competencies, these factors should be considered when designing future curricula. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Putwain, David William; Symes, Wendy
2014-01-01
Previous work has examined how messages communicated to students prior to high-stakes exams, that emphasise the importance of avoiding failure for subsequent life trajectory, may be appraised as threatening. In two studies, we extended this work to examine how students may also appraise such messages as challenging or disregard them as being of…
Greenberg, J; Pyszczynski, T; Paisley, C
1984-11-01
We conducted an experiment to assess the effect of extrinsic incentives on the use of test anxiety as a self-handicapping strategy. We hypothesized that although reports of anxiety may be greater when such symptoms can serve a defensive function, this effect occurs only when extrinsic incentives are low and not under conditions of high extrinsic incentive. Eighty-four male undergraduates anticipated taking a test of intellectual abilities and either were led to believe that test anxiety has no effect on test performance or were given no particular information about the relation between test anxiety and performance. Subjects were offered either +5 or +25 for obtaining the highest score on the test. Consistent with predictions, no-information subjects reported greater test anxiety before the test than did those who believed that test anxiety was unrelated to performance, but only when the extrinsic incentive for performance was low. However, these subjects did not report greater cognitive interference or exhibit lower test scores than did subjects in other conditions. It is tentatively suggested that the defensive strategy used by these subjects consisted of altering perceptions of anxiety, rather than anxiety itself. The implications of the absence of self-handicapping under high incentive conditions are discussed.
Is test anxiety a peril for students with intellectual disabilities?
Datta, Poulomee
2013-06-01
Test anxiety is one of the most confronting issues in modern times with the increase in the number of standardised and high-stakes testing. Research has established that there is a direct link between test anxiety and cognitive deficits. The aim of this study is to determine the test anxiety scores of the students with intellectual disabilities in South Australia. It also provided insights into the reasons for high-test anxiety in the participants under study. The Spielberger's Test Anxiety Questionnaire was administered on students with intellectual disabilities in stage 1. Interviews were conducted with participants with intellectual disabilities, parents and teachers in stage 2. Questionnaire findings revealed that the majority of the adolescent females and males and all adult females with intellectual disabilities had high test anxiety scores. However, the majority of adult males with intellectual disabilities obtained moderate test anxiety scores. In the worry and emotionality subscales, it was also found that the majority of adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities were found to score high. The high test anxiety scores have been justified by the interview responses obtained from the three groups of respondents. A number of factors have been identified to be the major predictors of test anxiety in students with intellectual disabilities.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Yerdelen-Damar, Sevda; Elby, Andrew
2016-06-01
This study investigates how elite Turkish high school physics students claim to approach learning physics when they are simultaneously (i) engaged in a curriculum that led to significant gains in their epistemological sophistication and (ii) subject to a high-stakes college entrance exam. Students reported taking surface (rote) approaches to learning physics, largely driven by college entrance exam preparation and therefore focused on algorithmic problem solving at the expense of exploring concepts and real-life examples more deeply. By contrast, in recommending study strategies to "Arzu," a hypothetical student who doesn't need to take a college entrance exam and just wants to understand physics deeply, the students focused more on linking concepts and real-life examples and on making sense of the formulas and concepts—deep approaches to learning that reflect somewhat sophisticated epistemologies. These results illustrate how students can epistemically compartmentalize, consciously taking different epistemic stances—different views of what counts as knowing and learning—in different contexts even within the same discipline.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McCluskey, Neal
2017-01-01
Since at least the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, standardized test scores have served as the primary measures of public school effectiveness. Yet, such scores fail to measure the ultimate goal of education: maximizing happiness. This exploratory analysis assesses nation level associations between test scores and happiness, controlling…
Test Scores, Dropout Rates, and Transfer Rates as Alternative Indicators of High School Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rumberger, Russell W.; Palardy, Gregory J.
2005-01-01
This study investigated the relationships among several different indicators of high school performance: test scores, dropout rates, transfer rates, and attrition rates. Hierarchical linear models were used to analyze panel data from a sample of 14,199 students who took part in the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. The results…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Black, William R.
2008-01-01
This article seeks to advance the discussion of the availability of contemporary notions of school leadership for school leaders working within high-stakes accountability reform environment that produce discourses of urgency and legitimize practices of performance that implicitly favour centralized, neo-Tayloristic managerial approaches. Drawing…
"Natural Philosophy" as a Foundation for Science Education in an Age of High-Stakes Accountability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Buxton, Cory; Provenzo, Eugene F., Jr.
2011-01-01
Science curriculum and instruction in K-12 settings in the United States is currently dominated by an emphasis on the science standards movement of the 1990s and the resulting standards-based high-stakes assessment and accountability movement of the 2000s. We argue that this focus has moved the field away from important philosophical…
Predicting occupational personality test scores.
Furnham, A; Drakeley, R
2000-01-01
The relationship between students' actual test scores and their self-estimated scores on the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI; R. Hogan & J. Hogan, 1992), an omnibus personality questionnaire, was examined. Despite being given descriptive statistics and explanations of each of the dimensions measured, the students tended to overestimate their scores; yet all correlations between actual and estimated scores were positive and significant. Correlations between self-estimates and actual test scores were highest for sociability, ambition, and adjustment (r = .62 to r = .67). The results are discussed in terms of employers' use and abuse of personality assessment for job recruitment.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zaromb, Franklin; Adler, Rachel M.; Bruce, Kelly; Attali, Yigal; Rock, JoAnn
2014-01-01
This study investigates the benefits of no-stakes educational testing during students' summer vacation as a strategy to mitigate summer learning loss. Fifty-one students in Grades 3-8 from the Every Child Valued (ECV) and Lawrence Community Center (LCC) summer programs in Lawrenceville, NJ, took short, online assessments throughout the summer,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Peck, Charles A.; Gallucci, Chrysan; Sloan, Tine
2010-01-01
Teacher education programs in the United States face a variety of new accountability policies at both the federal and the state level. Many of these policies carry high-stakes implications for students and programs and involve some of the same challenges for implementation as they have in the P-12 arena. Serious dilemmas for teacher educators…
How to construct and implement script concordance tests: insights from a systematic review.
Dory, Valérie; Gagnon, Robert; Vanpee, Dominique; Charlin, Bernard
2012-06-01
Programmes of assessment should measure the various components of clinical competence. Clinical reasoning has been traditionally assessed using written tests and performance-based tests. The script concordance test (SCT) was developed to assess clinical data interpretation skills. A recent review of the literature examined the validity argument concerning the SCT. Our aim was to provide potential users with evidence-based recommendations on how to construct and implement an SCT. A systematic review of relevant databases (MEDLINE, ERIC [Education Resources Information Centre], PsycINFO, the Research and Development Resource Base [RDRB, University of Toronto]) and Google Scholar, medical education journals and conference proceedings was conducted for references in English or French. It was supplemented by ancestry searching and by additional references provided by experts. The search yielded 848 references, of which 80 were analysed. Studies suggest that tests with around 100 items (25-30 cases), of which 25% are discarded after item analysis, should provide reliable scores. Panels with 10-20 members are needed to reach adequate precision in terms of estimated reliability. Panellists' responses can be analysed by checking for moderate variability among responses. Studies of alternative scoring methods are inconclusive, but the traditional scoring method is satisfactory. There is little evidence on how best to determine a pass/fail threshold for high-stakes examinations. Our literature search was broad and included references from medical education journals not indexed in the usual databases, conference abstracts and dissertations. There is good evidence on how to construct and implement an SCT for formative purposes or medium-stakes course evaluations. Further avenues for research include examining the impact of various aspects of SCT construction and implementation on issues such as educational impact, correlations with other assessments, and validity of pass
Exploring a Source of Uneven Score Equity across the Test Score Range
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Huggins-Manley, Anne Corinne; Qiu, Yuxi; Penfield, Randall D.
2018-01-01
Score equity assessment (SEA) refers to an examination of population invariance of equating across two or more subpopulations of test examinees. Previous SEA studies have shown that score equity may be present for examinees scoring at particular test score ranges but absent for examinees scoring at other score ranges. No studies to date have…
Do Examinees Understand Score Reports for Alternate Methods of Scoring Computer Based Tests?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Whittaker, Tiffany A.; Williams, Natasha J.; Dodd, Barbara G.
2011-01-01
This study assessed the interpretability of scaled scores based on either number correct (NC) scoring for a paper-and-pencil test or one of two methods of scoring computer-based tests: an item pattern (IP) scoring method and a method based on equated NC scoring. The equated NC scoring method for computer-based tests was proposed as an alternative…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jeffery, Samuel Shird
There is a correlation between the socioeconomic status of secondary schools and scores on the State of Ohio's mandated secondary science proficiency tests. In low scoring schools many reasons effectively explain the low test scores as a result of the low socioeconomics. For example, one reason may be that many students are working late hours after school to help with family finances; parents may simply be too busy providing family income to realize the consequences of the testing program. There are many other personal issues students face that may cause them to score poorly an the test. The perceptions of their teachers regarding the science proficiency test program may be one significant factor. These teacher perceptions are the topic of this study. Two sample groups ware established for this study. One group was science teachers from secondary schools scoring 85% or higher on the 12th grade proficiency test in the academic year 1998--1999. The other group consisted of science teachers from secondary schools scoring 35% or less in the same academic year. Each group of teachers responded to a survey instrument that listed several items used to determine teachers' perceptions of the secondary science proficiency test. A significant difference in the teacher' perceptions existed between the two groups. Some of the ranked items on the form include teachers' opinions of: (1) Teaching to the tests; (2) School administrators' priority placed on improving average test scores; (3) Teacher incentive for improving average test scores; (4) Teacher teaching style change as a result of the testing mandate; (5) Teacher knowledge of State curriculum model; (6) Student stress as a result of the high-stakes test; (7) Test cultural bias; (8) The tests in general.
What's Wrong with Teaching to the Test?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Posner, Dave
2004-01-01
Opponents of so-called high-stakes testing complain that such intense pressure causes teachers to devote virtually all classroom time and resources to preparing students for the standardized test. This phenomenon is called "teaching to the test." Proponents of high-stakes testing respond that that is exactly as it should be. They argue…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Doppelt, Jerome E.
1956-01-01
The standard error of measurement as a means for estimating the margin of error that should be allowed for in test scores is discussed. The true score measures the performance that is characteristic of the person tested; the variations, plus and minus, around the true score describe a characteristic of the test. When the standard deviation is used…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Theoharis, George; Causton, Julie; Tracy-Bronson, Chelsea P.
2016-01-01
Students identified with disabilities are increasingly being educated with the assistance of support services within heterogeneous (i.e., general education) classrooms (United States Department of Education, 2011). Yet, in this era of high stakes accountability, students are labeled, sorted, and differentially treated according to their academic…
What Do Test Score Really Mean? A Latent Class Analysis of Danish Test Score Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McIntosh, James; Munk, Martin D.
2014-01-01
Latent class Poisson count models are used to analyse a sample of Danish test score results from a cohort of individuals born in 1954-1955, tested in 1968, and followed until 2011. The procedure takes account of unobservable effects as well as excessive zeros in the data. We show that the test scores measure manifest or measured ability as it has…
Stochastic Processes as True-Score Models for Highly Speeded Mental Tests.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Moore, William E.
The previous theoretical development of the Poisson process as a strong model for the true-score theory of mental tests is discussed, and additional theoretical properties of the model from the standpoint of individual examinees are developed. The paper introduces the Erlang process as a family of test theory models and shows in the context of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Trinkle, James M., II
2013-01-01
Relatively recent federal education initiatives, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB; 2001), have focused on school accountability for student achievement including achievement of traditionally at-risk populations, such as students in special education, students from low-income or high poverty areas, and students who speak English as a new second…
Educational Technology Integration and High-Stakes Testing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Daniel, Tracy Demetrie
2012-01-01
Determining if the investment in educational technology will improve student achievement is complicated and multifarious. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of teacher technology integration on student achievement as measured by the Mississippi Subject Area Testing Program (SATP) and to explore the relationship between…
Relationship between Teacher-Student Rapport and High-Stakes Testing Performance in Science
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kimbro, Nathan Shawn
2017-01-01
The purpose of this predictive correlational study was to determine if a predictive relationship existed between teacher-student rapport, as perceived by students, and biology achievement scores. The Teacher-Student Likert Scale Questionnaire was used to measure students' perceptions of rapport with their science instructor. Students' scores on…
Validating Test Score Meaning and Defending Test Score Use: Different Aims, Different Methods
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cizek, Gregory J.
2016-01-01
Advances in validity theory and alacrity in validation practice have suffered because the term "validity" has been used to refer to two incompatible concerns: (1) the degree of support for specified interpretations of test scores (i.e. intended score meaning) and (2) the degree of support for specified applications (i.e. intended test…
Orledge, Jeffrey; Phillips, William J; Murray, W Bosseau; Lerant, Anna
2012-08-01
Simulation in healthcare is becoming increasingly used. This review will spotlight some of the uses of simulation in healthcare training. Previously, evaluation of simulation training was typically from evaluations from trainees. Recent articles, however, have linked simulation training to actual patient outcomes and demonstrated skill retention up to 1 year. Objective measurements have demonstrated positive effects on healthcare education, have been successfully used in high stakes examinations, and have uncovered systems and patient safety issues. This article will review some recent studies showing how simulation can have a positive effect on patient outcomes and skill retention, uncover systems issues related to patient safety, and how simulation can be used in credentialing, and other high stakes examinations.
Is South Korea a Case of High-Stakes Testing Gone Too Far? Information Capsule. Volume 1107
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Blazer, Christie
2012-01-01
South Korea's students consistently outperform their counterparts in almost every country in reading and math. Experts have concluded, however, that the South Korean education system has produced students who score well on tests, but fall short on creativity and innovative thinking. They blame these shortcomings on schools' emphasis on rote…
High-Stakes Testing Hasn't Brought Education Gains
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dianis, Judith Browne; Jackson, John H.; Noguera, Pedro
2015-01-01
The only thing that more testing will tell us is what we already know: The schools that disadvantaged children attend are not being given the supports necessary to produce achievement gains. Students cannot be tested out of poverty, and while NCLB did take us a step forward by requiring schools to produce evidence that students were learning, it…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chudowsky, Naomi; Chudowsky, Victor
2010-01-01
In recent years, scores on the annual state reading and mathematics tests used for accountability have gone up in most states. These trends in state test scores do not always coincide, however, with trends on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federally sponsored assessment that is administered periodically to…
Estimating Total-Test Scores from Partial Scores in a Matrix Sampling Design.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sachar, Jane; Suppes, Patrick
1980-01-01
The present study compared six methods, two of which utilize the content structure of items, to estimate total-test scores using 450 students and 60 items of the 110-item Stanford Mental Arithmetic Test. Three methods yielded fairly good estimates of the total-test score. (Author/RL)
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Washington
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Washington's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) decreased in grade 4 reading. In grade 4 math, the percentage scoring proficient on the state test decreased…
High Noon for High Stakes: Alfie Kohn at Middlebury College.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Barna, Ed
2002-01-01
The tougher standards movement has five fatal flaws. An emphasis on scores limits student willingness to experiment and be challenged. The "basic skills" approach to teaching--pouring knowledge down student throats--has never worked well. Standardized testing necessarily creates winners and losers. Accountability is coercive and…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Utah
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Utah's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 8 reading. In grade 4 reading, the percentage scoring proficient on the state test showed a…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Arkansas
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Arkansas's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) went up in math at grades 4 and 8. In reading, the percentages scoring proficient on the state test went up at…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stewart, Kathy L.
2016-01-01
With the national focus in education turning to increasing student achievement and closing achievement gaps between demographic groups, federal and state policy has extended responsibility and high stakes accountability for student growth and achievement. Overall, student achievement status and elimination of achievement gaps between…
Requirements for conformal coating and staking of printed wiring boards and electronic assemblies
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
1985-01-01
In order to maintain the high standards of the NASA conformal coating and staking program, this publication: prescribes NASA's requirements for assuring reliable conformal coating and staking for printed wiring boards and electronic assemblies; describes and incorporates basic considerations necessary to assure reliable conformal coating and staking; establishes the supplier's responsibility to train and certify personnel; provides for supplier documentation of the fabrication and inspection procedures to be used for NASA work, including supplier innovations and changes in technology; and provides visual workmanship standards to aid those responsible for determining quality conformance to the established requirements.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Symes, Wendy; Putwain, David W.; Remedios, Richard
2015-01-01
Prior to high stakes examinations, teachers may engage in instructional practices to encourage their students to prepare well for their exams, including the use of "fear appeals". The current study examined whether academic buoyancy played a role in student appraisals of fear appeals as threatening or challenging. High school students…
EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST SCORES
Pershad, Dwarka; Verma, S. K.
1980-01-01
Education, a long neglected variable affecting psychological test score, is in search of reemphasis. Some evidence for this has accumulated on the psychological tests constructed and standardized here at the department of Psychiatry, P.G.I., Chandigarh. Tentative norms prepared education wise on WAIS-Verbal section, PGI-Memory Scale, Proverb and Similarity Tests, Psychoticism Questionnaire, and PGI MQN 2, for adults, in the age range of 16-50, are reported. The results showed marked difference in the mean scores of different educational categories and thus stressed the need for reporting norms separately for different educational levels. PMID:22064617
Birditt, Kira S.; Hartnett, Caroline Sten; Fingerman, Karen L.; Zarit, Steven; Antonucci, Toni C.
2015-01-01
The intergenerational stake hypothesis suggests that parents are more invested in their children and experience better quality parent–child ties than do their children. In this study the authors examined variation in reports of relationship quality regarding parents and children intraindividually (do people report better quality ties with their children than with their parents?) and whether within-person variations have implications for well-being. Participants age 40–60 (N = 633) reported on their relationship quality (importance, positive and negative quality) with their parents and adult children. Individuals reported their relationships with children were more important and more negative than relationships with parents. Individuals with feelings that were in the opposite direction of the intergenerational stake hypothesis (i.e., greater investment in parents than children) reported poorer well-being. The findings provide support for the intergenerational stake hypothesis with regard to within-person variations in investment and show that negative relationship quality may coincide with greater feelings of investment. PMID:26339103
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Qian, David D.
2014-01-01
In recent years, school-based assessment (SBA) has been incorporated into the English Language subject of a traditional high-stakes public examination, the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. As reactions from various stakeholder groups have been mixed, it was necessary to review this new practice. This paper reports on a study of 33…
Prediction of true test scores from observed item scores and ancillary data.
Haberman, Shelby J; Yao, Lili; Sinharay, Sandip
2015-05-01
In many educational tests which involve constructed responses, a traditional test score is obtained by adding together item scores obtained through holistic scoring by trained human raters. For example, this practice was used until 2008 in the case of GRE(®) General Analytical Writing and until 2009 in the case of TOEFL(®) iBT Writing. With use of natural language processing, it is possible to obtain additional information concerning item responses from computer programs such as e-rater(®). In addition, available information relevant to examinee performance may include scores on related tests. We suggest application of standard results from classical test theory to the available data to obtain best linear predictors of true traditional test scores. In performing such analysis, we require estimation of variances and covariances of measurement errors, a task which can be quite difficult in the case of tests with limited numbers of items and with multiple measurements per item. As a consequence, a new estimation method is suggested based on samples of examinees who have taken an assessment more than once. Such samples are typically not random samples of the general population of examinees, so that we apply statistical adjustment methods to obtain the needed estimated variances and covariances of measurement errors. To examine practical implications of the suggested methods of analysis, applications are made to GRE General Analytical Writing and TOEFL iBT Writing. Results obtained indicate that substantial improvements are possible both in terms of reliability of scoring and in terms of assessment reliability. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.
Strom, Suzanne L; Anderson, Craig L; Yang, Luanna; Canales, Cecilia; Amin, Alpesh; Lotfipour, Shahram; McCoy, C Eric; Osborn, Megan Boysen; Langdorf, Mark I
2015-11-01
Traditional Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) courses are evaluated using written multiple-choice tests. High-fidelity simulation is a widely used adjunct to didactic content, and has been used in many specialties as a training resource as well as an evaluative tool. There are no data to our knowledge that compare simulation examination scores with written test scores for ACLS courses. To compare and correlate a novel high-fidelity simulation-based evaluation with traditional written testing for senior medical students in an ACLS course. We performed a prospective cohort study to determine the correlation between simulation-based evaluation and traditional written testing in a medical school simulation center. Students were tested on a standard acute coronary syndrome/ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest scenario. Our primary outcome measure was correlation of exam results for 19 volunteer fourth-year medical students after a 32-hour ACLS-based Resuscitation Boot Camp course. Our secondary outcome was comparison of simulation-based vs. written outcome scores. The composite average score on the written evaluation was substantially higher (93.6%) than the simulation performance score (81.3%, absolute difference 12.3%, 95% CI [10.6-14.0%], p<0.00005). We found a statistically significant moderate correlation between simulation scenario test performance and traditional written testing (Pearson r=0.48, p=0.04), validating the new evaluation method. Simulation-based ACLS evaluation methods correlate with traditional written testing and demonstrate resuscitation knowledge and skills. Simulation may be a more discriminating and challenging testing method, as students scored higher on written evaluation methods compared to simulation.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thomson, Pat; Blackmore, Jill; Sachs, Judyth; Tregenza, Karen
2003-01-01
Subjects a corpus of predominantly United States news articles to deconstructive narrative analysis and finds that the dominant media representation of principals' work is one of long hours, low salary, high stress, and sudden death from high stakes accountabilities. Notes that the media picture may perpetuate the problem, and that it is at odds…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
von der Embse, Nathaniel P.; Schultz, Brandon K.; Draughn, Jeremy D.
2015-01-01
Educational accountability policies have led to a growth in the use of high-stakes examinations for a number of important educational decisions, including the evaluation of teacher effectiveness. As such, educators are under increasing pressure to raise student test performance. In an attempt to prepare students for a high-stakes exam, teachers…
Test/score/report: Simulation techniques for automating the test process
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hageman, Barbara H.; Sigman, Clayton B.; Koslosky, John T.
1994-01-01
A Test/Score/Report capability is currently being developed for the Transportable Payload Operations Control Center (TPOCC) Advanced Spacecraft Simulator (TASS) system which will automate testing of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) and Mission Operations Center (MOC) software in three areas: telemetry decommutation, spacecraft command processing, and spacecraft memory load and dump processing. Automated computer control of the acceptance test process is one of the primary goals of a test team. With the proper simulation tools and user interface, the task of acceptance testing, regression testing, and repeatability of specific test procedures of a ground data system can be a simpler task. Ideally, the goal for complete automation would be to plug the operational deliverable into the simulator, press the start button, execute the test procedure, accumulate and analyze the data, score the results, and report the results to the test team along with a go/no recommendation to the test team. In practice, this may not be possible because of inadequate test tools, pressures of schedules, limited resources, etc. Most tests are accomplished using a certain degree of automation and test procedures that are labor intensive. This paper discusses some simulation techniques that can improve the automation of the test process. The TASS system tests the POCC/MOC software and provides a score based on the test results. The TASS system displays statistics on the success of the POCC/MOC system processing in each of the three areas as well as event messages pertaining to the Test/Score/Report processing. The TASS system also provides formatted reports documenting each step performed during the tests and the results of each step. A prototype of the Test/Score/Report capability is available and currently being used to test some POCC/MOC software deliveries. When this capability is fully operational it should greatly reduce the time necessary
Jaiprakash, Heethal; Min, Aung Ko Ko; Ghosh, Sarmishtha
2016-03-01
This paper is aimed at finding if there was a change of correlation between the written test score and tutors' performance test scores in the assessment of medical students during a problem-based learning (PBL) course in Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional observational study, conducted among 264 medical students in two groups from November 2010 to November 2012. The first group's tutors did not receive tutor training; while the second group's tutors were trained in the PBL process. Each group was divided into high, middle and low achievers based on their end-of-semester exam scores. PBL scores were taken which included written test scores and tutors' performance test scores. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the two kinds of scores in each group. The correlation coefficient between the written scores and tutors' scores in group 1 was 0.099 (p<0.001) and for group 2 was 0.305 (p<0.001). The higher correlation coefficient in the group where tutors received the PBL training reinforces the importance of tutor training before their participation in the PBL course.
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chudowsky, Naomi; Chudowsky, Victor
2010-01-01
This report compares state math and reading proficiency scores in grades 4 and 8 to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) basic scores for the period of 2005 to 2009. The study found that scores on state tests and NAEP have increased in most states with sufficient data. Also included with the report are profiles for the 23 states that…
Estimating Total-test Scores from Partial Scores in a Matrix Sampling Design.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sachar, Jane; Suppes, Patrick
It is sometimes desirable to obtain an estimated total-test score for an individual who was administered only a subset of the items in a total test. The present study compared six methods, two of which utilize the content structure of items, to estimate total-test scores using 450 students in grades 3-5 and 60 items of the ll0-item Stanford Mental…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Ohio
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Ohio's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 4 reading and grade 8 math. In grade 8 reading, the percentage of students scoring proficient…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Feldt, Leonard S.
2004-01-01
In some settings, the validity of a battery composite or a test score is enhanced by weighting some parts or items more heavily than others in the total score. This article describes methods of estimating the total score reliability coefficient when differential weights are used with items or parts.
ITC Guidelines on Quality Control in Scoring, Test Analysis, and Reporting of Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Allalouf, Avi
2014-01-01
The Quality Control (QC) Guidelines are intended to increase the efficiency, precision, and accuracy of the scoring, analysis, and reporting process of testing. The QC Guidelines focus on large-scale testing operations where multiple forms of tests are created for use on set dates. However, they may also be used for a wide variety of other testing…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shulruf, Boaz; Turner, Rolf; Poole, Phillippa; Wilkinson, Tim
2013-01-01
The decision to pass or fail a medical student is a "high stakes" one. The aim of this study is to introduce and demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of a new objective standard-setting method for determining the pass/fail cut-off score from borderline grades. Three methods for setting up pass/fail cut-off scores were compared: the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Holley, Hope D.
2017-01-01
Despite research that high-stakes tests do not improve knowledge, Florida requires students to pass an Algebra I End-of-Course exam (EOC) to earn a high school diploma. Test passing scores are determined by a raw score to t-score to scale score analysis. This method ultimately results as a comparative test model where students' passage is…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hedrick, Wanda B., Ed.
2007-01-01
There's accountability and then there's the testing craze an iatrogenic practice that undermines real learning. Hedrick documents the negative effects of testing, giving teachers another weapon in their arsenal against mindless preparation for high-stakes tests.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ponder, Gerald, Ed.; Strahan, David, Ed.
2005-01-01
This book presents cases of schools (Part One) and programs at the district level and beyond (Part Two) in which reform, while driven by high-stakes accountability, became larger and deeper through data-driven dialogue, culture change, organizational learning, and other elements of high performing cultures. Commentaries on cross-case patterns by…
Summary of Score Changes (in other Tests).
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cleary, T. Anne; McCandless, Sam A.
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores have declined during the last 14 years. Similar score declines have been observed in many different testing programs, many groups, and tested areas. The declines, while not large in any given year, have been consistent over time, area, and group. The period around 1965 is critical for the interpretation of…
French government to trim direct stake in Total
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Not Available
This paper reports that the French government has decided to slash its direct stake in partly state owned oil company Total to 5% from 31.7%, a surprise move expected to raise 10 billion francs ($1.8 billion). At the same time, other state owned entities will be asked to boost their combined 2.2% stake in Total to 10%, leaving the government with a net 15% interest in Total vs. the current 34%. Initially, state owned insurance companies Groupe des Assurances Nationales and Assurances Generale de France will be asked to hike their stakes in Total, but others could be asked tomore » join if needed to meet the 10% target. The government the its phase-down of participation in Total, established in 1924 to manage French interests in Iraq Petroleum Co., was prompted by the evolution of the oil context, which differs greatly from what had prompted a significant stake of the state in Total's capital.« less
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liu, Liqun; Neilson, William S.
2011-01-01
In this paper college admissions are based on test scores and students can exert two types of effort: real learning and exam preparation. The former improves skills but the latter is more effective in raising test scores. In this setting the students with the lowest skills are no longer the ones with the lowest aptitude, but instead are the ones…
Testing Intelligently Includes Double-Checking Wechsler IQ Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kuentzel, Jeffrey G.; Hetterscheidt, Lesley A.; Barnett, Douglas
2011-01-01
The rigors of standardized testing make for numerous opportunities for examiner error, including simple computational mistakes in scoring. Although experts recommend that test scoring be double-checked, the extent to which independent double-checking would reduce scoring errors is not known. A double-checking procedure was established at a…
High Baseline Postconcussion Symptom Scores and Concussion Outcomes in Athletes.
Custer, Aimee; Sufrinko, Alicia; Elbin, R J; Covassin, Tracey; Collins, Micky; Kontos, Anthony
2016-02-01
Some healthy athletes report high levels of baseline concussion symptoms, which may be attributable to several factors (eg, illness, personality, somaticizing). However, the role of baseline symptoms in outcomes after sport-related concussion (SRC) has not been empirically examined. To determine if athletes with high symptom scores at baseline performed worse than athletes without baseline symptoms on neurocognitive testing after SRC. Cohort study. High school and collegiate athletic programs. A total of 670 high school and collegiate athletes participated in the study. Participants were divided into groups with either no baseline symptoms (Postconcussion Symptom Scale [PCSS] score = 0, n = 247) or a high level of baseline symptoms (PCSS score > 18 [top 10% of sample], n = 68). Participants were evaluated at baseline and 2 to 7 days after SRC with the Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test and PCSS. Outcome measures were Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test composite scores (verbal memory, visual memory, visual motor processing speed, and reaction time) and total symptom score on the PCSS. The groups were compared using repeated-measures analyses of variance with Bonferroni correction to assess interactions between group and time for symptoms and neurocognitive impairment. The no-symptoms group represented 38% of the original sample, whereas the high-symptoms group represented 11% of the sample. The high-symptoms group experienced a larger decline from preinjury to postinjury than the no-symptoms group in verbal (P = .03) and visual memory (P = .05). However, total concussion-symptom scores increased from preinjury to postinjury for the no-symptoms group (P = .001) but remained stable for the high-symptoms group. Reported baseline symptoms may help identify athletes at risk for worse outcomes after SRC. Clinicians should examine baseline symptom levels to better identify patients for earlier referral and treatment for their
High Baseline Postconcussion Symptom Scores and Concussion Outcomes in Athletes
Custer, Aimee; Sufrinko, Alicia; Elbin, R. J.; Covassin, Tracey; Collins, Micky; Kontos, Anthony
2016-01-01
Context: Some healthy athletes report high levels of baseline concussion symptoms, which may be attributable to several factors (eg, illness, personality, somaticizing). However, the role of baseline symptoms in outcomes after sport-related concussion (SRC) has not been empirically examined. Objective: To determine if athletes with high symptom scores at baseline performed worse than athletes without baseline symptoms on neurocognitive testing after SRC. Design: Cohort study. Setting: High school and collegiate athletic programs. Patients or Other Participants: A total of 670 high school and collegiate athletes participated in the study. Participants were divided into groups with either no baseline symptoms (Postconcussion Symptom Scale [PCSS] score = 0, n = 247) or a high level of baseline symptoms (PCSS score > 18 [top 10% of sample], n = 68). Main Outcome Measure(s): Participants were evaluated at baseline and 2 to 7 days after SRC with the Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test and PCSS. Outcome measures were Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test composite scores (verbal memory, visual memory, visual motor processing speed, and reaction time) and total symptom score on the PCSS. The groups were compared using repeated-measures analyses of variance with Bonferroni correction to assess interactions between group and time for symptoms and neurocognitive impairment. Results: The no-symptoms group represented 38% of the original sample, whereas the high-symptoms group represented 11% of the sample. The high-symptoms group experienced a larger decline from preinjury to postinjury than the no-symptoms group in verbal (P = .03) and visual memory (P = .05). However, total concussion-symptom scores increased from preinjury to postinjury for the no-symptoms group (P = .001) but remained stable for the high-symptoms group. Conclusions:> Reported baseline symptoms may help identify athletes at risk for worse
The Eighth Grade CRCT as a Predictive Measure of Student Success on the Ninth Grade EOCT
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Body, Matthew
2013-01-01
Student performance on high stakes testing in secondary education has contributed to the need for students' testing potential to be identified before entering high school. There is evidence to suggest that a greater understanding of how earlier test scores predict later test scores will help educators and school officials increase student…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Powell, P. E.
Educators have recently come to consider inquiry based instruction as a more effective method of instruction than didactic instruction. Experience based learning theory suggests that student performance is linked to teaching method. However, research is limited on inquiry teaching and its effectiveness on preparing students to perform well on standardized tests. The purpose of the study to investigate whether one of these two teaching methodologies was more effective in increasing student performance on standardized science tests. The quasi experimental quantitative study was comprised of two stages. Stage 1 used a survey to identify teaching methods of a convenience sample of 57 teacher participants and determined level of inquiry used in instruction to place participants into instructional groups (the independent variable). Stage 2 used analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to compare posttest scores on a standardized exam by teaching method. Additional analyses were conducted to examine the differences in science achievement by ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status by teaching methodology. Results demonstrated a statistically significant gain in test scores when taught using inquiry based instruction. Subpopulation analyses indicated all groups showed improved mean standardized test scores except African American students. The findings benefit teachers and students by presenting data supporting a method of content delivery that increases teacher efficacy and produces students with a greater cognition of science content that meets the school's mission and goals.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gose, Ben
1995-01-01
A psychologist's research suggests that black and female students may have lower standardized test scores and academic achievement because they have accepted stereotypes concerning their ability. Critics feel the researcher, Claude M. Steele, may be overlooking other factors. Steele has developed a program a Stanford University (California) to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ramsteck, Carolin; Muslic, Barbara; Graf, Tanja; Maier, Uwe; Kuper, Harm
2015-01-01
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how principals and school supervisory authorities understand and use feedback from mandatory proficiency tests (VERA) in the low-stakes context of Germany. For the analysis, the authors refer to a theoretical model of schools that differentiates between Autonomous and Managed Professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meijer, Rob R.
2004-01-01
Two new methods have been proposed to determine unexpected sum scores on sub-tests (testlets) both for paper-and-pencil tests and computer adaptive tests. A method based on a conservative bound using the hypergeometric distribution, denoted p, was compared with a method where the probability for each score combination was calculated using a…
Does Test Preparation Work? Implications for Score Validity
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Xie, Qin
2013-01-01
This article reports an empirical study that examined the pattern of test preparation for College English Test Band 4 (CET4) and the differential effects of test preparation practices on its scores, thereby drawing implications for CET4 score validity. Data collection involved 1,003 test takers of CET4. A pretest was administered at the beginning…
Long-term stake evaluations of waterborne copper systems
Stan Lebow; Cherilyn Hatfield; Douglas Crawford; Bessie Woodward
2003-01-01
Limitations on the use of chromated copper arsenate (CCA) have heightened interest in use of arsenic-free copper-based alternatives. For decades, the USDA Forest Products Laboratory has been evaluating several of these systems in stake plots. Southern Pine 38- by 89- by 457-mm (1.5- by 3.5- by 18-inch) stakes were treated with varying concentrations of acid copper...
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Powers, Donald; Schedl, Mary; Papageorgiou, Spiros
2017-01-01
The aim of this study was to develop, for the benefit of both test takers and test score users, enhanced "TOEFL ITP"® test score reports that go beyond the simple numerical scores that are currently reported. To do so, we applied traditional scale anchoring (proficiency scaling) to item difficulty data in order to develop performance…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cheng, Liying; Klinger, Don; Fox, Janna; Doe, Christine; Jin, Yan; Wu, Jessica
2014-01-01
This study examined test-takers' motivation, test anxiety, and test performance across a range of social and educational contexts in three high-stakes language tests: the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment in Canada, the College English Test (CET) in the People's Republic of China, and the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT)…
Ryan, Michael S; Bishop, Steven; Browning, Joel; Anand, Rahul J; Waterhouse, Elizabeth; Rigby, Fidelma; Al-Mateen, Cheryl S; Lee, Clifton; Bradner, Melissa; Colbert-Getz, Jorie M
2017-06-01
The National Board of Medical Examiners' Clinical Science Subject Examinations are a component used by most U.S. medical schools to determine clerkship grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of this practice. This was a retrospective cohort study of medical students at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine who completed clerkships in 2012 through 2014. Linear regression was used to determine how well United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scores predicted Subject Examination scores in seven clerkships. The authors then substituted each student's Subject Examination standard scores with his or her Step 1 standard score. Clerkship grades based on the Step 1 substitution were compared with actual grades with the Wilcoxon rank test. A total of 2,777 Subject Examination scores from 432 students were included in the analysis. Step 1 scores significantly predicted between 23% and 44% of the variance in Subject Examination scores, P < .001 for all clerkship regression equations. Mean differences between expected and actual Subject Examination scores were small (≤ 0.2 points). There was a match between 73% of Step 1 substituted final clerkship grades and actual final clerkship grades. The results of this study suggest that performance on Step 1 can be used to identify and counsel students at risk for poor performance on the Subject Examinations. In addition, these findings call into the question the validity of using scores from Subject Examinations as a high-stakes assessment of learning in individual clerkships.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thorburn, Malcolm
2008-01-01
In an earlier paper some of the conceptual and curriculum coherence challenges of linking practically based experiential learning with authentic attainment in high-stakes examination awards in physical education were analysed (Thorburn, 2007). Problems often existed for students in deriving subject knowledge understanding from tasks where there…
The Truth about Scores Children Achieve on Tests.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brown, Jonathan R.
1989-01-01
The importance of using the standard error of measurement (SEm) in determining reliability in test scores is emphasized. The SEm is compared to the hypothetical true score for standardized tests, and procedures for calculation of the SEm are explained. (JDD)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Levin, Henry M.
2012-01-01
Around the world we hear considerable talk about creating world-class schools. Usually the term refers to schools whose students get very high scores on the international comparisons of student achievement such as PISA or TIMSS. The practice of restricting the meaning of exemplary schools to the narrow criterion of achievement scores is usually…
Using College Admission Test Scores to Clarify High School Placement. Leading Indicator Spotlight
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Flug, Susanna
2010-01-01
In "Beyond Test Scores: Leading Indicators for Education," Foley and colleagues (2008) define leading indicators as those that "provide early signals of progress toward academic achievement" (p. 1) and stress that educators "need leading indicators to help them see the direction their efforts are going in and to take…
Generalized likelihood ratios for quantitative diagnostic test scores.
Tandberg, D; Deely, J J; O'Malley, A J
1997-11-01
The reduction of quantitative diagnostic test scores to the dichotomous case is a wasteful and unnecessary simplification in the era of high-speed computing. Physicians could make better use of the information embedded in quantitative test results if modern generalized curve estimation techniques were applied to the likelihood functions of Bayes' theorem. Hand calculations could be completely avoided and computed graphical summaries provided instead. Graphs showing posttest probability of disease as a function of pretest probability with confidence intervals (POD plots) would enhance acceptance of these techniques if they were immediately available at the computer terminal when test results were retrieved. Such constructs would also provide immediate feedback to physicians when a valueless test had been ordered.
Test-Taking Skills in College Students with and without ADHD
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lewandowski, Lawrence; Gathje, Rebecca A.; Lovett, Benjamin J.; Gordon, Michael
2013-01-01
College students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often request and receive extended time to complete high-stakes exams and classroom tests. This study examined the performances and behaviors of college students on computerized simulations of high-stakes exams. Thirty-five college students with ADHD were compared to 185 typical…
The Influence of Foreign Language Learning during Early Childhood on Standardized Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shaw, Tommetta
2010-01-01
Increasing standardized test scores in reading and math is of high importance to the California Department of Education to meet requirements mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act of 2001. More research is needed to understand the best ways to improve tests scores to meet concerns of the NCLB act. The purpose of the study was to evaluate…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Furnham, Adrian; Guenole, Nigel; Levine, Stephen Z.; Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas
2013-01-01
This study presents new analyses of NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R) responses collected from a large British sample in a high-stakes setting. The authors show the appropriateness of the five-factor model underpinning these responses in a variety of new ways. Using the recently developed exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM)…
The Probability of Obtaining Two Statistically Different Test Scores as a Test Index
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Muller, Jorg M.
2006-01-01
A new test index is defined as the probability of obtaining two randomly selected test scores (PDTS) as statistically different. After giving a concept definition of the test index, two simulation studies are presented. The first analyzes the influence of the distribution of test scores, test reliability, and sample size on PDTS within classical…
The effects of calculator-based laboratories on standardized test scores
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Stevens, Charlotte Bethany Rains
Nationwide, the goal of providing a productive science and math education to our youth in today's educational institutions is centering itself around the technology being utilized in these classrooms. In this age of digital technology, educational software and calculator-based laboratories (CBL) have become significant devices in the teaching of science and math for many states across the United States. Among the technology, the Texas Instruments graphing calculator and Vernier Labpro interface, are among some of the calculator-based laboratories becoming increasingly popular among middle and high school science and math teachers in many school districts across this country. In Tennessee, however, it is reported that this type of technology is not regularly utilized at the student level in most high school science classrooms, especially in the area of Physical Science (Vernier, 2006). This research explored the effect of calculator based laboratory instruction on standardized test scores. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of traditional teaching methods versus graphing calculator teaching methods on the state mandated End-of-Course (EOC) Physical Science exam based on ability, gender, and ethnicity. The sample included 187 total tenth and eleventh grade physical science students, 101 of which belonged to a control group and 87 of which belonged to the experimental group. Physical Science End-of-Course scores obtained from the Tennessee Department of Education during the spring of 2005 and the spring of 2006 were used to examine the hypotheses. The findings of this research study suggested the type of teaching method, traditional or calculator based, did not have an effect on standardized test scores. However, the students' ability level, as demonstrated on the End-of-Course test, had a significant effect on End-of-Course test scores. This study focused on a limited population of high school physical science students in the middle Tennessee
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Turnamian, Peter G.
2012-01-01
This study examined the strength and direction of the relationship between 2009 NJ ASK 3 Language Arts and Mathematics scores and district social and demographic data (i.e., lone-parent household, level of parental education, and household income levels) found in the extant literature to influence student achievement on high-stakes standardized…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Zimmermann, Judith; von Davier, Alina A.; Buhmann, Joachim M.; Heinimann, Hans R.
2018-01-01
Graduate admission has become a critical process in tertiary education, whereby selecting valid admissions instruments is key. This study assessed the validity of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test scores for admission to Master's programmes at a technical university in Europe. We investigated the indicative value of GRE scores for the Master's programme grade point average (GGPA) with and without the addition of the undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and the TOEFL score, and of GRE scores for study completion and Master's thesis performance. GRE scores explained 20% of the variation in the GGPA, while additional 7% were explained by the TOEFL score and 3% by the UGPA. Contrary to common belief, the GRE quantitative reasoning score showed only little explanatory power. GRE scores were also weakly related to study progress but not to thesis performance. Nevertheless, GRE and TOEFL scores were found to be sensible admissions instruments. Rigorous methodology was used to obtain highly reliable results.
Seo, Dong Gi
2017-01-01
Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) has been implemented in high-stakes examinations such as the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurses in the United States since 1994. Subsequently, the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians in the United States adopted CAT for certifying emergency medical technicians in 2007. This was done with the goal of introducing the implementation of CAT for medical health licensing examinations. Most implementations of CAT are based on item response theory, which hypothesizes that both the examinee and items have their own characteristics that do not change. There are 5 steps for implementing CAT: first, determining whether the CAT approach is feasible for a given testing program; second, establishing an item bank; third, pretesting, calibrating, and linking item parameters via statistical analysis; fourth, determining the specification for the final CAT related to the 5 components of the CAT algorithm; and finally, deploying the final CAT after specifying all the necessary components. The 5 components of the CAT algorithm are as follows: item bank, starting item, item selection rule, scoring procedure, and termination criterion. CAT management includes content balancing, item analysis, item scoring, standard setting, practice analysis, and item bank updates. Remaining issues include the cost of constructing CAT platforms and deploying the computer technology required to build an item bank. In conclusion, in order to ensure more accurate estimations of examinees' ability, CAT may be a good option for national licensing examinations. Measurement theory can support its implementation for high-stakes examinations.
2017-01-01
Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) has been implemented in high-stakes examinations such as the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurses in the United States since 1994. Subsequently, the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians in the United States adopted CAT for certifying emergency medical technicians in 2007. This was done with the goal of introducing the implementation of CAT for medical health licensing examinations. Most implementations of CAT are based on item response theory, which hypothesizes that both the examinee and items have their own characteristics that do not change. There are 5 steps for implementing CAT: first, determining whether the CAT approach is feasible for a given testing program; second, establishing an item bank; third, pretesting, calibrating, and linking item parameters via statistical analysis; fourth, determining the specification for the final CAT related to the 5 components of the CAT algorithm; and finally, deploying the final CAT after specifying all the necessary components. The 5 components of the CAT algorithm are as follows: item bank, starting item, item selection rule, scoring procedure, and termination criterion. CAT management includes content balancing, item analysis, item scoring, standard setting, practice analysis, and item bank updates. Remaining issues include the cost of constructing CAT platforms and deploying the computer technology required to build an item bank. In conclusion, in order to ensure more accurate estimations of examinees’ ability, CAT may be a good option for national licensing examinations. Measurement theory can support its implementation for high-stakes examinations. PMID:28811394
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dulude, Eliane; Spillane, James P.; Dumay, Xavier
2017-01-01
Several social processes guide and shape how school actors engage with high stakes state and district policies relative to mandated curriculum and instruction. In this article, we use rhetorical argumentation analysis to explore how stakeholders mobilize resources through argumentation and rhetorical appeals (logical, emotional, and…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Nevada
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Nevada's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP increased in grade 8 reading and math. Average annual gains were larger on the state test than on NAEP in both subjects. Trends in average (mean) test scores…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Anglim, Jeromy; Bozic, Stefan; Little, Jonathon; Lievens, Filip
2018-01-01
The current study examined the degree to which applicants applying for medical internships distort their responses to personality tests and assessed whether this response distortion led to reduced predictive validity. The applicant sample (n = 530) completed the NEO Personality Inventory whilst applying for one of 60 positions as first-year…
Communicative Learning Outcomes and World Language edTPA: Characteristics of High-Scoring Portfolios
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Swanson, Pete; Hildebrandt, Susan A.
2017-01-01
Teacher accountability continues to be at the forefront of educational policy in the United States, with the current focus on the Outcomes of K-12 teaching and teacher education (Cochran-Smith 2000). edTPA, a high-stakes assessment used in many states to make licensure or certification decisions, purports to measure those content-specific…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Louisiana
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Louisiana's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, trends on state tests and NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) sometimes differed. On the state test, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level increased at grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. On NAEP, the percentage of…
Lollis, Jana; LaSasso, Carol
2009-01-01
Deaf students consistently score lower on standardized measures of reading comprehension than their hearing peers. Most of the studies that have been conducted to explain this phenomenon have focused on variables within the reader, and important differences have been found between deaf and hearing readers. More recently, in the face of increasingly high-stakes consequences, researchers are looking "outside" the reader, at the tests themselves, to determine whether there are fairness issues for special populations, such as deaf students. The study reported here, the first of its kind with deaf students, examines the North Carolina (NC) reading comprehension test. The study employs the same method used originally by NC to determine its appropriateness of the test for the general population of NC students. The experts in this article, like those in the original construction of the NC test, are familiar with the content of the reading curriculum in NC; however, the raters in this article bring a special perspective related to teaching and testing reading of students who are deaf. Findings from this study raise questions about the appropriateness of the NC reading test for deaf students. Implications for future research and instructional practice are discussed.
Pikto-Pietkiewicz, Witold; Przewłocka, Monika; Chybowska, Barbara; Cyciwa, Alona; Pasierski, Tomasz
2014-01-01
Type 2 diabetes markedly increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and screening for CHD is suggested by the guidelines. The aim of the study was to compare the diagnostic usefulness of the simple exercise test score, incorporating the clinical data and cardiac stress test results, with the standard stress test in patients with type 2 diabetes. A total of 62 consecutive patients (aged 65.4 ±8.5 years; 32 men) with type 2 diabetes and clinical symptoms suggesting CHD underwent a stress test followed by coronary angiography. The simple score was calculated for all patients. Significant coronary stenosis was observed in 41 patients (66.1%). Stress test results were positive in 36 patients (58.1%). The mean simple score was high (65.5 ±14.3 points). A positive linear relationship was observed between the score and the prevalence of CHD (R2 = 0.19; P <0.001) as well as its severity (R² = 0.23; P <0.001). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for the simple score was 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62-0.86). At the original cut-off value of 60 points, the score had a similar prognostic value to that of the standard stress test. However, in a multivariate analysis, only the simple score (odds ratio [OR], 1.46; 95% CI, 1.11-1.94; P <0.01 for an increase in the score by 1 point) and male sex (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.24-1.98; P <0.001) remained independent predictors of CHD. In patients with type 2 diabetes, the simple score correlated with the prevalence and severity of CHD. However, the cut-off value of 60 points was inadequate in the population of diabetic patients with high risk of CHD. The simple score used instead of or together with the stress test was a better predictor of CHD than the stress test alone.
Beyond High Stakes Testing: Rural High School Students and Their Yearbooks
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hoffman, Lynn M.
2005-01-01
I conducted surveys, focus group interviews, and analyzed the yearbooks of fifty four yearbook students from five rural high schools to investigate students' process of yearbook construction and to determine what was meaningful and memorable to them throughout their high school experience. Chang's (1992) construct of an adolescent ethos, including…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Jaekyung; Reeves, Todd
2012-01-01
This study examines the impact of high-stakes school accountability, capacity, and resources under NCLB on reading and math achievement outcomes through comparative interrupted time-series analyses of 1990-2009 NAEP state assessment data. Through hierarchical linear modeling latent variable regression with inverse probability of treatment…
Economic games on the internet: the effect of $1 stakes.
Amir, Ofra; Rand, David G; Gal, Ya'akov Kobi
2012-01-01
Online labor markets such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) offer an unprecedented opportunity to run economic game experiments quickly and inexpensively. Using Mturk, we recruited 756 subjects and examined their behavior in four canonical economic games, with two payoff conditions each: a stakes condition, in which subjects' earnings were based on the outcome of the game (maximum earnings of $1); and a no-stakes condition, in which subjects' earnings are unaffected by the outcome of the game. Our results demonstrate that economic game experiments run on MTurk are comparable to those run in laboratory settings, even when using very low stakes.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Buckley, Katie Hills
2015-01-01
Despite the prevalence of student learning objectives (SLOs) in teacher evaluation systems throughout the United States, research on the validity of student and teacher SLO scores used for high-stakes decisions is lacking. For this reason, this dissertation is comprised of two chapters that examine student and teacher-level SLO performance data…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Tennessee
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Tennessee's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 8 reading and math. At grade 4, trends on the state test and NAEP differed somewhat. In…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Maryland
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Maryland's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased at grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were larger on the state test than…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Pennsylvania
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Pennsylvania's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 8 reading and math. Average annual gains were larger on the state test than on NAEP in…
Using a Scoring Rubric to Assess the Writing of Bioethics Students.
Stoddard, Hugh A; Labrecque, Cory A; Schonfeld, Toby
2016-04-01
Educators in bioethics have struggled to find valid and reliable assessments that transcend the "reproduction of knowledge" to target more important skill sets. This manuscript reports on the process of developing and grading a minimal-competence comprehensive examination in a bioethics master's degree program. We describe educational theory and practice for the creation and deployment of scoring rubrics for high-stakes performance assessments that reduce scoring inconsistencies. The rubric development process can also benefit the program by building consensus among stakeholders regarding program goals and student outcomes. We describe the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome taxonomy as a mechanism for rubric design and provide an example of how we applied that taxonomy to define pass/fail cut scores. Details about domains of assessment and writing descriptors of performance are also presented. Despite the laborious work required to create a scoring rubric, we found the effort to be worthwhile for our program.
Self-Monitoring Assessments for Educational Accountability Systems
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koretz, Daniel; Beguin, Anton
2010-01-01
Test-based accountability is now the cornerstone of U.S. education policy, and it is becoming more important in many other nations as well. Educators sometimes respond to test-based accountability in ways that produce score inflation. In the past, score inflation has usually been evaluated by comparing trends in scores on a high-stakes test to…
Pohl, Steffi; Südkamp, Anna; Hardt, Katinka; Carstensen, Claus H.; Weinert, Sabine
2016-01-01
Assessing competencies of students with special educational needs in learning (SEN-L) poses a challenge for large-scale assessments (LSAs). For students with SEN-L, the available competence tests may fail to yield test scores of high psychometric quality, which are—at the same time—measurement invariant to test scores of general education students. We investigated whether we can identify a subgroup of students with SEN-L, for which measurement invariant competence measures of adequate psychometric quality may be obtained with tests available in LSAs. We furthermore investigated whether differences in test-taking behavior may explain dissatisfying psychometric properties and measurement non-invariance of test scores within LSAs. We relied on person fit indices and mixture distribution models to identify students with SEN-L for whom test scores with satisfactory psychometric properties and measurement invariance may be obtained. We also captured differences in test-taking behavior related to guessing and missing responses. As a result we identified a subgroup of students with SEN-L for whom competence scores of adequate psychometric quality that are measurement invariant to those of general education students were obtained. Concerning test taking behavior, there was a small number of students who unsystematically picked response options. Removing these students from the sample slightly improved item fit. Furthermore, two different patterns of missing responses were identified that explain to some extent problems in the assessments of students with SEN-L. PMID:26941665
Taylor, Lauren J; Nabozny, Michael J; Steffens, Nicole M; Tucholka, Jennifer L; Brasel, Karen J; Johnson, Sara K; Zelenski, Amy; Rathouz, Paul J; Zhao, Qianqian; Kwekkeboom, Kristine L; Campbell, Toby C; Schwarze, Margaret L
2017-06-01
Although many older adults prefer to avoid burdensome interventions with limited ability to preserve their functional status, aggressive treatments, including surgery, are common near the end of life. Shared decision making is critical to achieve value-concordant treatment decisions and minimize unwanted care. However, communication in the acute inpatient setting is challenging. To evaluate the proof of concept of an intervention to teach surgeons to use the Best Case/Worst Case framework as a strategy to change surgeon communication and promote shared decision making during high-stakes surgical decisions. Our prospective pre-post study was conducted from June 2014 to August 2015, and data were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. The data were drawn from decision-making conversations between 32 older inpatients with an acute nonemergent surgical problem, 30 family members, and 25 surgeons at 1 tertiary care hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. A 2-hour training session to teach each study-enrolled surgeon to use the Best Case/Worst Case communication framework. We scored conversation transcripts using OPTION 5, an observer measure of shared decision making, and used qualitative content analysis to characterize patterns in conversation structure, description of outcomes, and deliberation over treatment alternatives. The study participants were patients aged 68 to 95 years (n = 32), 44% of whom had 5 or more comorbid conditions; family members of patients (n = 30); and surgeons (n = 17). The median OPTION 5 score improved from 41 preintervention (interquartile range, 26-66) to 74 after Best Case/Worst Case training (interquartile range, 60-81). Before training, surgeons described the patient's problem in conjunction with an operative solution, directed deliberation over options, listed discrete procedural risks, and did not integrate preferences into a treatment recommendation. After training, surgeons using Best Case/Worst Case clearly presented a choice between
Do High Stakes Tests Drive Up Student Dropout Rates? Myths versus Reality. Knowledge Brief.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rabinowitz, Stanley; Zimmerman, Joy; Sherman, Kerry
This report proposes that not enough good data or research has been done to settle the debate over whether testing affects high school dropout rates. Advocates argue that the threat of missing out on a diploma or of being retained motivates students to work harder, resulting in higher academic achievement. Critics argue that failing a high school…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hamid, M. Obaidul; Hoang, Ngoc T. H.
2018-01-01
Test-takers' voices in relation to high-stakes language tests have received growing attention in recent years. While the perspectives of this stakeholder group can be utilised to improve test quality, test-taking experience, and test impact, we argue that this goal needs to be achieved by considering a fundamental shift in our conceptualisation of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kitchen, Richard; Ridder, Sarah Anderson; Bolz, Joseph
2016-01-01
Research is needed to understand the impact of high-stakes testing on teachers' practices and consequently on their students, particularly at schools that serve large numbers of low-income students and students of color. In this research study, we examined how a state's annual high-stakes test and administrative mandates influenced the assessment…
Ha, Seunghee; Jung, Seungeun; Koh, Kyung S
2018-06-01
The purpose of this study was to determine whether test-retest nasalance score variability differs between Korean children with and without cleft palate (CP) and vowel context influences variability in nasalance score. Thirty-four 3-to-5-year-old children with and without CP participated in the study. Three 8-syllable speech stimuli devoid of nasal consonants were used for data collection. Each stimulus was loaded with high, low, or mixed vowels, respectively. All participants were asked to repeat the speech stimuli twice after the examiner, and an immediate test-retest nasalance score was assessed with no headgear change. Children with CP exhibited significantly greater absolute difference in nasalance scores than children without CP. Variability in nasalance scores was significantly different for the vowel context, and the high vowel sentence showed a significantly larger difference in nasalance scores than the low vowel sentence. The cumulative frequencies indicated that, for children with CP in the high vowel sentence, only 8 of 17 (47%) repeated nasalance scores were within 5 points. Test-retest nasalance score variability was greater for children with CP than children without CP, and there was greater variability for the high vowel sentence(s) for both groups. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Relationship of Elementary and Secondary School Achievement Test Scores to Later Academic Success.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Loyd, Brenda H.; And Others
1980-01-01
This study investigated the relationship between achievement test scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED), and high school and college grade point average. Support for the predictive validity of the ITBS and ITED achievement test batteries is provided. (Author/GK)
George, J M; Wagner, E E
1995-06-01
Pearson correlations between the Hand Test Pathology (PATH) score and Personality Assessment Inventory scales produced a cluster of relationships characteristic of an antisocial orientation. Likewise, PATH significantly differentiated between a "P" (Pathology) group flagged by a high Negative Impression score on the inventory, and an "N" (Normal) group of 100 pain patients. It was suggested that the interpretive simplicity of Hand Test scores renders the scores amenable to further correlational studies involving the inventory.
A Comparison of Methods to Screen Middle School Students for Reading and Math Difficulties
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nelson, Peter M.; Van Norman, Ethan R.; Lackner, Stacey K.
2016-01-01
The current study explored multiple ways in which middle schools can use and integrate data sources to predict proficiency on future high-stakes state achievement tests. The diagnostic accuracy of (a) prior achievement data, (b) teacher rating scale scores, (c) a composite score combining state test scores and rating scale responses, and (d) two…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Putwain, David W.; Symes, Wendy
2016-01-01
Previous research has examined how subjective task-value and expectancy of success influence the appraisal of value-promoting messages used by teachers prior to high-stakes examinations. The aim of this study was to examine whether message-frame (gain or loss-framed messages) also influences the appraisal of value-promoting messages. Two hundred…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Nebraska
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Nebraska's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the percentages reaching the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased at grade 4 in both reading and math. At grade 8, however, the percentages…
Niu, Sunny X; Tienda, Marta
2012-04-01
Using administrative data for five Texas universities that differ in selectivity, this study evaluates the relative influence of two key indicators for college success-high school class rank and standardized tests. Empirical results show that class rank is the superior predictor of college performance and that test score advantages do not insulate lower ranked students from academic underperformance. Using the UT-Austin campus as a test case, we conduct a simulation to evaluate the consequences of capping students admitted automatically using both achievement metrics. We find that using class rank to cap the number of students eligible for automatic admission would have roughly uniform impacts across high schools, but imposing a minimum test score threshold on all students would have highly unequal consequences by greatly reduce the admission eligibility of the highest performing students who attend poor high schools while not jeopardizing admissibility of students who attend affluent high schools. We discuss the implications of the Texas admissions experiment for higher education in Europe.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hardy, Lawrence
2001-01-01
In an era of high-stakes testing and prescriptive teaching styles, a San Diego charter high school embraces project learning, multilevel classrooms, and video portfolios of student work. The school lacks dining, music, and athletic facilities, but features hefty teacher salaries, student freedom, and real-world problem solving. (MLH)
The Successful Test Taker: Exploring Test-Taking Behavior Profiles through Cluster Analysis
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stenlund, Tova; Lyrén, Per-Erik; Eklöf, Hanna
2018-01-01
To be successful in a high-stakes testing situation is desirable for any test taker. It has been found that, beside content knowledge, test-taking behavior, such as risk-taking strategies, motivation, and test anxiety, is important for test performance. The purposes of the present study were to identify and group test takers with similar patterns…
Equating Scores from Adaptive to Linear Tests
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
van der Linden, Wim J.
2006-01-01
Two local methods for observed-score equating are applied to the problem of equating an adaptive test to a linear test. In an empirical study, the methods were evaluated against a method based on the test characteristic function (TCF) of the linear test and traditional equipercentile equating applied to the ability estimates on the adaptive test…
Stability of scores for the Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test.
Williams, Thomas O; Eaves, Ronald C; Woods-Groves, Suzanne; Mariano, Gina
2007-08-01
The test-retest stability of the Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test by Algozzine, Eaves, Mann, and Vance was investigated with test scores from a sample of 103 students. With a mean interval of 13.7 mo. and different examiners for each of the two test administrations, the test-retest reliability coefficients for the Full-Range IQ, Verbal Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Memory were .93, .85, .80, .80, and .83, respectively. Mean differences from the test-retest scores were not statistically significantly different for any of the scales. Results suggest that Slosson scores are stable over time even when different examiners administer the test.
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Alaska
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Alaska's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in math and grade 8 in reading. In grade 4 reading, the percentage reaching the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Massachusetts' test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 4 reading and math and grade 8 math. Average annual gains were larger on the state test…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. California
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles California's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were larger on the state test…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Montana
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Montana's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 4 reading and math and grade 8 reading. In grade 8 math, however, the percentage proficient…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Colorado
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Colorado's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were generally larger on NAEP than…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Wisconsin
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Wisconsin's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in math at grades 4 and 8 and in reading at grade 8. In grade 4 reading, the percentage scoring…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Alabama
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Alabama's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were generally larger on the state…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Texas
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Texas' test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in reading at grades 4 and 8 and in math at grade 8. In grade 4 math, however, the percentage scoring…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Florida
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Florida's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were generally larger on the state…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Arizona
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Arizona's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were generally larger on the state…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. Iowa
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles Iowa's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 4 reading and math and in grade 8 math. In grade 8 reading, the percentage of students reaching…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Goldhaber, Dan; Gratz, Trevor; Theobald, Roddy
2016-01-01
We investigate the relationship between teacher licensure test scores and student test achievement and high school course-taking. We focus on three subject/grade combinations--middle school math, ninth-grade algebra and geometry, and ninth-grade biology--and find evidence that a teacher's basic skills test scores are modestly predictive of student…
Azad, Aftab Mohammad; Al Juma, Saad; Bhatti, Junaid Ahmad; Delaney, J Scott
2016-01-01
Balance testing is an important part of the initial concussion assessment. There is no research on the differences in Modified Balance Error Scoring System (M-BESS) scores when tested in real world as compared to control conditions. To assess the difference in M-BESS scores in athletes wearing their protective equipment and cleats on different surfaces as compared to control conditions. This cross-sectional study examined university North American football and soccer athletes. Three observers independently rated athletes performing the M-BESS test in three different conditions: (1) wearing shorts and T-shirt in bare feet on firm surface (control); (2) wearing athletic equipment with cleats on FieldTurf; and (3) wearing athletic equipment with cleats on firm surface. Mean M-BESS scores were compared between conditions. 60 participants were recruited: 39 from football (all males) and 21 from soccer (11 males and 10 females). Average age was 21.1 years (SD=1.8). Mean M-BESS scores were significantly lower (p<0.001) for cleats on FieldTurf (mean=26.3; SD=2.0) and for cleats on firm surface (mean=26.6; SD=2.1) as compared to the control condition (mean=28.4; SD=1.5). Females had lower scores than males for cleats on FieldTurf condition (24.9 (SD=1.9) vs 27.3 (SD=1.6), p=0.005). Players who had taping or bracing on their ankles/feet had lower scores when tested with cleats on firm surface condition (24.6 (SD=1.7) vs 26.9 (SD=2.0), p=0.002). Total M-BESS scores for athletes wearing protective equipment and cleats standing on FieldTurf or a firm surface are around two points lower than M-BESS scores performed on the same athletes under control conditions.
Azad, Aftab Mohammad; Al Juma, Saad; Bhatti, Junaid Ahmad; Delaney, J Scott
2016-01-01
Background Balance testing is an important part of the initial concussion assessment. There is no research on the differences in Modified Balance Error Scoring System (M-BESS) scores when tested in real world as compared to control conditions. Objective To assess the difference in M-BESS scores in athletes wearing their protective equipment and cleats on different surfaces as compared to control conditions. Methods This cross-sectional study examined university North American football and soccer athletes. Three observers independently rated athletes performing the M-BESS test in three different conditions: (1) wearing shorts and T-shirt in bare feet on firm surface (control); (2) wearing athletic equipment with cleats on FieldTurf; and (3) wearing athletic equipment with cleats on firm surface. Mean M-BESS scores were compared between conditions. Results 60 participants were recruited: 39 from football (all males) and 21 from soccer (11 males and 10 females). Average age was 21.1 years (SD=1.8). Mean M-BESS scores were significantly lower (p<0.001) for cleats on FieldTurf (mean=26.3; SD=2.0) and for cleats on firm surface (mean=26.6; SD=2.1) as compared to the control condition (mean=28.4; SD=1.5). Females had lower scores than males for cleats on FieldTurf condition (24.9 (SD=1.9) vs 27.3 (SD=1.6), p=0.005). Players who had taping or bracing on their ankles/feet had lower scores when tested with cleats on firm surface condition (24.6 (SD=1.7) vs 26.9 (SD=2.0), p=0.002). Conclusions Total M-BESS scores for athletes wearing protective equipment and cleats standing on FieldTurf or a firm surface are around two points lower than M-BESS scores performed on the same athletes under control conditions. PMID:27900181
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wood, Sarah G.; Hart, Sara A.; Little, Callie W.; Phillips, Beth M.
2016-01-01
Past research suggests that reading comprehension test performance does not rely solely on targeted cognitive processes such as word reading, but also on other nontarget aspects such as test anxiety. Using a genetically sensitive design, we sought to understand the genetic and environmental etiology of the association between test anxiety and…
The Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST): Test-Retest Reliability in a High Scoring Sample
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Allison, Carrie; Williams, Jo; Scott, Fiona; Stott, Carol; Bolton, Patrick; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Brayne, Carol
2007-01-01
The Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST) is a 37-item parental self-completion questionnaire designed to screen for high-functioning autism spectrum conditions in epidemiological research. The CAST has previously demonstrated good accuracy for use as a screening test, with high sensitivity in studies with primary school aged children in…
Progress testing in the medical curriculum: students' approaches to learning and perceived stress.
Chen, Yan; Henning, Marcus; Yielder, Jill; Jones, Rhys; Wearn, Andy; Weller, Jennifer
2015-09-11
Progress Tests (PTs) draw on a common question bank to assess all students in a programme against graduate outcomes. Theoretically PTs drive deep approaches to learning and reduce assessment-related stress. In 2013, PTs were introduced to two year groups of medical students (Years 2 and 4), whereas students in Years 3 and 5 were taking traditional high-stakes assessments. Staged introduction of PTs into our medical curriculum provided a time-limited opportunity for a comparative study. The main purpose of the current study was to compare the impact of PTs on undergraduate medical students' approaches to learning and perceived stress with that of traditional high-stakes assessments. We also aimed to investigate the associations between approaches to learning, stress and PT scores. Undergraduate medical students (N = 333 and N = 298 at Time 1 and Time 2 respectively) answered the Revised Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) at two time points to evaluate change over time. The R-SPQ-2F generated a surface approach and a deep approach score; the PSS generated an overall perceived stress score. We found no significant differences between the two groups in approaches to learning at either time point, and no significant changes in approaches to learning over time in either cohort. Levels of stress increased significantly at the end of the year (Time 2) for students in the traditional assessment cohort, but not in the PT cohort. In the PT cohort, surface approach to learning, but not stress, was a significant negative predictor of students' PT scores. While confirming an association between surface approaches to learning and lower PT scores, we failed to demonstrate an effect of PTs on approaches to learning. However, a reduction in assessment-associated stress is an important finding.
Effects of Classroom Ventilation Rate and Temperature on Students' Test Scores.
Haverinen-Shaughnessy, Ulla; Shaughnessy, Richard J
2015-01-01
Using a multilevel approach, we estimated the effects of classroom ventilation rate and temperature on academic achievement. The analysis is based on measurement data from a 70 elementary school district (140 fifth grade classrooms) from Southwestern United States, and student level data (N = 3109) on socioeconomic variables and standardized test scores. There was a statistically significant association between ventilation rates and mathematics scores, and it was stronger when the six classrooms with high ventilation rates that were indicated as outliers were filtered (> 7.1 l/s per person). The association remained significant when prior year test scores were included in the model, resulting in less unexplained variability. Students' mean mathematics scores (average 2286 points) were increased by up to eleven points (0.5%) per each liter per second per person increase in ventilation rate within the range of 0.9-7.1 l/s per person (estimated effect size 74 points). There was an additional increase of 12-13 points per each 1°C decrease in temperature within the observed range of 20-25°C (estimated effect size 67 points). Effects of similar magnitude but higher variability were observed for reading and science scores. In conclusion, maintaining adequate ventilation and thermal comfort in classrooms could significantly improve academic achievement of students.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
GOODWIN, WILLIAM L.; AND OTHERS
NULL HYPOTHESES WERE TESTED TO DETERMINE THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF (1) EXPERIMENTAL ATMOSPHERE AND ABSENCE OF SAME, (2) NOTICE OF TEST (10 SCHOOL DAYS) AND NO NOTICE (1 SCHOOL DAY), (3) TEACHER ADMINISTRATION AND OUTSIDE ADMINISTRATION OF TESTS, AND (4) TEACHER SCORING AND OUTSIDE SCORING OF TESTS. SIXTH-GRADE CLASSES (N=64), EACH FROM A…
Score Equating and Nominally Parallel Language Tests.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Moy, Raymond
Score equating requires that the forms to be equated are functionally parallel. That is, the two test forms should rank order examinees in a similar fashion. In language proficiency testing situations, this assumption is often put into doubt because of the numerous tests that have been proposed as measures of language proficiency and the…
The effect of $1, $5 and $10 stakes in an online dictator game.
Raihani, Nichola J; Mace, Ruth; Lamba, Shakti
2013-01-01
The decision rules underpinning human cooperative behaviour are often investigated under laboratory conditions using monetary incentives. A major concern with this approach is that stake size may bias subjects' decisions. This concern is particularly acute in online studies, where stakes are often far lower than those used in laboratory or field settings. We address this concern by conducting a Dictator Game using Amazon Mechanical Turk. In this two-player game, one player (the dictator) determines the division of an endowment between himself and the other player. We recruited subjects from India and the USA to play an online Dictator Game. Dictators received endowments of $1, $5 or $10. We collected two batches of data over two consecutive years. We found that players from India were less generous when playing with a $10 stake. By contrast, the effect of stake size among players from the USA was very small. This study indicates that the effects of stake size on decision making in economic games may vary across populations.
T-Pattern Analysis and Cognitive Load Manipulation to Detect Low-Stake Lies: An Exploratory Study.
Diana, Barbara; Zurloni, Valentino; Elia, Massimiliano; Cavalera, Cesare; Realdon, Olivia; Jonsson, Gudberg K; Anguera, M Teresa
2018-01-01
Deception has evolved to become a fundamental aspect of human interaction. Despite the prolonged efforts in many disciplines, there has been no definite finding of a univocally "deceptive" signal. This work proposes an approach to deception detection combining cognitive load manipulation and T-pattern methodology with the objective of: (a) testing the efficacy of dual task-procedure in enhancing differences between truth tellers and liars in a low-stakes situation; (b) exploring the efficacy of T-pattern methodology in discriminating truthful reports from deceitful ones in a low-stakes situation; (c) setting the experimental design and procedure for following research. We manipulated cognitive load to enhance differences between truth tellers and liars, because of the low-stakes lies involved in our experiment. We conducted an experimental study with a convenience sample of 40 students. We carried out a first analysis on the behaviors' frequencies coded through the observation software, using SPSS (22). The aim was to describe shape and characteristics of behavior's distributions and explore differences between groups. Datasets were then analyzed with Theme 6.0 software which detects repeated patterns (T-patterns) of coded events (non-verbal behaviors) that regularly or irregularly occur within a period of observation. A descriptive analysis on T-pattern frequencies was carried out to explore differences between groups. An in-depth analysis on more complex patterns was performed to get qualitative information on the behavior structure expressed by the participants. Results show that the dual-task procedure enhances differences observed between liars and truth tellers with T-pattern methodology; moreover, T-pattern detection reveals a higher variety and complexity of behavior in truth tellers than in liars. These findings support the combination of cognitive load manipulation and T-pattern methodology for deception detection in low-stakes situations, suggesting the
T-Pattern Analysis and Cognitive Load Manipulation to Detect Low-Stake Lies: An Exploratory Study
Diana, Barbara; Zurloni, Valentino; Elia, Massimiliano; Cavalera, Cesare; Realdon, Olivia; Jonsson, Gudberg K.; Anguera, M. Teresa
2018-01-01
Deception has evolved to become a fundamental aspect of human interaction. Despite the prolonged efforts in many disciplines, there has been no definite finding of a univocally “deceptive” signal. This work proposes an approach to deception detection combining cognitive load manipulation and T-pattern methodology with the objective of: (a) testing the efficacy of dual task-procedure in enhancing differences between truth tellers and liars in a low-stakes situation; (b) exploring the efficacy of T-pattern methodology in discriminating truthful reports from deceitful ones in a low-stakes situation; (c) setting the experimental design and procedure for following research. We manipulated cognitive load to enhance differences between truth tellers and liars, because of the low-stakes lies involved in our experiment. We conducted an experimental study with a convenience sample of 40 students. We carried out a first analysis on the behaviors’ frequencies coded through the observation software, using SPSS (22). The aim was to describe shape and characteristics of behavior’s distributions and explore differences between groups. Datasets were then analyzed with Theme 6.0 software which detects repeated patterns (T-patterns) of coded events (non-verbal behaviors) that regularly or irregularly occur within a period of observation. A descriptive analysis on T-pattern frequencies was carried out to explore differences between groups. An in-depth analysis on more complex patterns was performed to get qualitative information on the behavior structure expressed by the participants. Results show that the dual-task procedure enhances differences observed between liars and truth tellers with T-pattern methodology; moreover, T-pattern detection reveals a higher variety and complexity of behavior in truth tellers than in liars. These findings support the combination of cognitive load manipulation and T-pattern methodology for deception detection in low-stakes situations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dessoff, Alan
2011-01-01
Administrators and teachers in several large districts nationwide have cheated on standardized tests to make achievement levels look better than they actually were. The offenses range from giving students advance answers to questions on standardized tests, to erasing and changing unsatisfactory answers. As a result of district and state…
Reporting Diagnostic Scores in Educational Testing: Temptations, Pitfalls, and Some Solutions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sinharay, Sandip; Puhan, Gautam; Haberman, Shelby J.
2010-01-01
Diagnostic scores are of increasing interest in educational testing due to their potential remedial and instructional benefit. Naturally, the number of educational tests that report diagnostic scores is on the rise, as are the number of research publications on such scores. This article provides a critical evaluation of diagnostic score reporting…
Ballesteros-Peña, Sendoa; Vallejo-De la Hoz, Gorka; Fernández-Aedo, Irrintzi
2017-12-23
To analyse vein catheterisation and blood gas test-related pain among adult patients in the emergency department and to explore pain score-related factors. An observational and multicentre research study was performed. Patients undergoing vein catheterisation or arterial puncture for gas test were included consecutively. After each procedure, patients scored the pain experienced using the NRS-11. 780 vein catheterisations and 101 blood gas tests were analysed. Venipuncture was scored with an average score of 2.8 (95% CI: 2.6-3), and arterial puncture with 3.6 (95%CI 3.1-4). Iatrogenic pain scores were associated with moderate - high difficulty procedures (P<.001); with the choice of the humeral rather than the radial artery (P=.02) in the gas test and correlated to baseline pain in venipunctures (P<.001). Pain scores related to other variables such as sex, place of origin or needle gauge did not present statistically significant differences. Vein catheterisation and blood gas test-related pain can be considered mild to moderately and moderately painful procedures, respectively. The pain score is associated with certain variables such as the difficulty of the procedure, the anatomic area of the puncture or baseline pain. A better understanding of painful effects related to emergency nursing procedures and the factors associated with pain self-perception could help to determine when and how to act to mitigate this undesired effect. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.
Risk prediction score for severe high altitude illness: a cohort study.
Canouï-Poitrine, Florence; Veerabudun, Kalaivani; Larmignat, Philippe; Letournel, Murielle; Bastuji-Garin, Sylvie; Richalet, Jean-Paul
2014-01-01
Risk prediction of acute mountain sickness, high altitude (HA) pulmonary or cerebral edema is currently based on clinical assessment. Our objective was to develop a risk prediction score of Severe High Altitude Illness (SHAI) combining clinical and physiological factors. Study population was 1017 sea-level subjects who performed a hypoxia exercise test before a stay at HA. The outcome was the occurrence of SHAI during HA exposure. Two scores were built, according to the presence (PRE, n = 537) or absence (ABS, n = 480) of previous experience at HA, using multivariate logistic regression. Calibration was evaluated by Hosmer-Lemeshow chisquare test and discrimination by Area Under ROC Curve (AUC) and Net Reclassification Index (NRI). The score was a linear combination of history of SHAI, ventilatory and cardiac response to hypoxia at exercise, speed of ascent, desaturation during hypoxic exercise, history of migraine, geographical location, female sex, age under 46 and regular physical activity. In the PRE/ABS groups, the score ranged from 0 to 12/10, a cut-off of 5/5.5 gave a sensitivity of 87%/87% and a specificity of 82%/73%. Adding physiological variables via the hypoxic exercise test improved the discrimination ability of the models: AUC increased by 7% to 0.91 (95%CI: 0.87-0.93) and 17% to 0.89 (95%CI: 0.85-0.91), NRI was 30% and 54% in the PRE and ABS groups respectively. A score computed with ten clinical, environmental and physiological factors accurately predicted the risk of SHAI in a large cohort of sea-level residents visiting HA regions.
Rosselli, M; Ardila, A; Bateman, J R; Guzmán, M
2001-01-01
Limited information is currently available about performance of Spanish-speaking children on different neuropsychological tests. This study was designed to (a) analyze the effects of age and sex on different neuropsychological test scores of a randomly selected sample of Spanish-speaking children, (b) analyze the value of neuropsychological test scores for predicting school performance, and (c) describe the neuropsychological profile of Spanish-speaking children with learning disabilities (LD). Two hundred ninety (141 boys, 149 girls) 6- to 11-year-old children were selected from a school in Bogotá, Colombia. Three age groups were distinguished: 6- to 7-, 8- to 9-, and 10- to 11-year-olds. Performance was measured utilizing the following neuropsychological tests: Seashore Rhythm Test, Finger Tapping Test (FTT), Grooved Pegboard Test, Children's Category Test (CCT), California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C), Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), and Bateria Woodcock Psicoeducativa en Español (Woodcock, 1982). Normative scores were calculated. Age effect was significant for most of the test scores. A significant sex effect was observed for 3 test scores. Intercorrelations were performed between neuropsychological test scores and academic areas (science, mathematics, Spanish, social studies, and music). In a post hoc analysis, children presenting very low scores on the reading, writing, and arithmetic achievement scales of the Woodcock battery were identified in the sample, and their neuropsychological test scores were compared with a matched normal group. Finally, a comparison was made between Colombian and American norms.
Score Reporting for the 1991 Medical College Admission Test.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mitchell, Karen J.; Haynes, Robert
1990-01-01
Data used in a major review of the system for reporting scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) are presented and discussed. The data demonstrated the value of the current score-reporting system and led to retention of the 15-point MCAT score scale in 1991. (Author/MSE)
Tests as Boundary Signifiers: Level 6 Tests and the Primary Secondary Divide
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coldwell, Mike; Willis, Ben
2017-01-01
This paper addresses the question: How do teachers and school leaders respond to high stakes testing of pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school? It explores how a new test, the Level 6 test, operated with regard to primary/secondary school relationships in England. It draws on an analysis of qualitative interviews with teachers and…
Teacher Greetings Increase College Students' Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weinstein, Lawrence; Laverghetta, Antonio; Alexander, Ralph; Stewart, Megan
2009-01-01
The current study is an extension of a previous investigation dealing with teacher greetings to students. The present investigation used teacher greetings with college students and academic performance (test scores). We report data using university students and in-class test performance. Students in introductory psychology who received teachers'…
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. New Mexico
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles New Mexico's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentages of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grade 4 math and grade 8 reading and math. In grade 4 reading, the percentage basic on NAEP …
State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP. North Dakota
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center on Education Policy, 2010
2010-01-01
This paper profiles North Dakota's test score trends through 2008-09. Between 2005 and 2009, the percentage of students reaching the proficient level on the state test and the basic level on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) increased in grades 4 and 8 in both reading and math. Average annual gains were larger on the state test…
Effects of Classroom Ventilation Rate and Temperature on Students’ Test Scores
2015-01-01
Using a multilevel approach, we estimated the effects of classroom ventilation rate and temperature on academic achievement. The analysis is based on measurement data from a 70 elementary school district (140 fifth grade classrooms) from Southwestern United States, and student level data (N = 3109) on socioeconomic variables and standardized test scores. There was a statistically significant association between ventilation rates and mathematics scores, and it was stronger when the six classrooms with high ventilation rates that were indicated as outliers were filtered (> 7.1 l/s per person). The association remained significant when prior year test scores were included in the model, resulting in less unexplained variability. Students’ mean mathematics scores (average 2286 points) were increased by up to eleven points (0.5%) per each liter per second per person increase in ventilation rate within the range of 0.9–7.1 l/s per person (estimated effect size 74 points). There was an additional increase of 12–13 points per each 1°C decrease in temperature within the observed range of 20–25°C (estimated effect size 67 points). Effects of similar magnitude but higher variability were observed for reading and science scores. In conclusion, maintaining adequate ventilation and thermal comfort in classrooms could significantly improve academic achievement of students. PMID:26317643
The Fallibility of High Stakes "11-Plus" Testing in Northern Ireland
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gardner, John; Cowan, Pamela
2005-01-01
This paper sets out the findings from a large-scale analysis of the Northern Ireland Transfer Procedure Tests, used to select pupils for grammar schools. As it was not possible to get completed test scripts from government agencies, over 3000 practice scripts were completed in simulated conditions and were analysed to establish whether the tests…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sussman, Joshua; Beaujean, A. Alexander; Worrell, Frank C.; Watson, Stevie
2013-01-01
Item response models (IRMs) were used to analyze Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS) scores. Rasch analysis scores were compared with classical test theory (CTT) scores. The partial credit model demonstrated a high goodness of fit and correlations between Rasch and CTT scores ranged from 0.91 to 0.99. CRIS scores are supported by both methods.…
A process dissociation approach to objective-projective test score interrelationships.
Bornstein, Robert F
2002-02-01
Even when self-report and projective measures of a given trait or motive both predict theoretically related features of behavior, scores on the 2 tests correlate modestly with each other. This article describes a process dissociation framework for personality assessment, derived from research on implicit memory and learning, which can resolve these ostensibly conflicting results. Research on interpersonal dependency is used to illustrate 3 key steps in the process dissociation approach: (a) converging behavioral predictions, (b) modest test score intercorrelations, and (c) delineation of variables that differentially affect self-report and projective test scores. Implications of the process dissociation framework for personality assessment and test development are discussed.
A prognostic scoring system for arm exercise stress testing.
Xie, Yan; Xian, Hong; Chandiramani, Pooja; Bainter, Emily; Wan, Leping; Martin, Wade H
2016-01-01
Arm exercise stress testing may be an equivalent or better predictor of mortality outcome than pharmacological stress imaging for the ≥50% for patients unable to perform leg exercise. Thus, our objective was to develop an arm exercise ECG stress test scoring system, analogous to the Duke Treadmill Score, for predicting outcome in these individuals. In this retrospective observational cohort study, arm exercise ECG stress tests were performed in 443 consecutive veterans aged 64.1 (11.1) years. (mean (SD)) between 1997 and 2002. From multivariate Cox models, arm exercise scores were developed for prediction of 5-year and 12-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and 5-year cardiovascular mortality or myocardial infarction (MI). Arm exercise capacity in resting metabolic equivalents (METs), 1 min heart rate recovery (HRR) and ST segment depression ≥1 mm were the stress test variables independently associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by step-wise Cox analysis (all p<0.01). A score based on the relation HRR (bpm)+7.3×METs-10.5×ST depression (0=no; 1=yes) prognosticated 5-year cardiovascular mortality with a C-statistic of 0.81 before and 0.88 after adjustment for significant demographic and clinical covariates. Arm exercise scores for the other outcome end points yielded C-statistic values of 0.77-0.79 before and 0.82-0.86 after adjustment for significant covariates versus 0.64-0.72 for best fit pharmacological myocardial perfusion imaging models in a cohort of 1730 veterans who were evaluated over the same time period. Arm exercise scores, analogous to the Duke Treadmill Score, have good power for prediction of mortality or MI in patients who cannot perform leg exercise.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fox, Janna; Cheng, Liying
2015-01-01
In keeping with the trend to elicit multiple stakeholder responses to operational tests as part of test validation, this exploratory mixed methods study examines test-taker accounts of an Internet-based (i.e., computer-administered) test in the high-stakes context of proficiency testing for university admission. In 2013, as language testing…
Rubínová, Eva; Nikolai, Tomáš; Marková, Hana; Siffelová, Kamila; Laczó, Jan; Hort, Jakub; Vyhnálek, Martin
2014-01-01
The Clock Drawing Test is a frequently used cognitive screening test with several scoring systems in elderly populations. We compare simple and complex scoring systems and evaluate the usefulness of the combination of the Clock Drawing Test with the Mini-Mental State Examination to detect patients with mild cognitive impairment. Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 48) and age- and education-matched controls (n = 48) underwent neuropsychological examinations, including the Clock Drawing Test and the Mini-Mental State Examination. Clock drawings were scored by three blinded raters using one simple (6-point scale) and two complex (17- and 18-point scales) systems. The sensitivity and specificity of these scoring systems used alone and in combination with the Mini-Mental State Examination were determined. Complex scoring systems, but not the simple scoring system, were significant predictors of the amnestic mild cognitive impairment diagnosis in logistic regression analysis. At equal levels of sensitivity (87.5%), the Mini-Mental State Examination showed higher specificity (31.3%, compared with 12.5% for the 17-point Clock Drawing Test scoring scale). The combination of Clock Drawing Test and Mini-Mental State Examination scores increased the area under the curve (0.72; p < .001) and increased specificity (43.8%), but did not increase sensitivity, which remained high (85.4%). A simple 6-point scoring system for the Clock Drawing Test did not differentiate between healthy elderly and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment in our sample. Complex scoring systems were slightly more efficient, yet still were characterized by high rates of false-positive results. We found psychometric improvement using combined scores from the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clock Drawing Test when complex scoring systems were used. The results of this study support the benefit of using combined scores from simple methods.
Stereotype threat and group differences in test performance: a question of measurement invariance.
Wicherts, Jelte M; Dolan, Conor V; Hessen, David J
2005-11-01
Studies into the effects of stereotype threat (ST) on test performance have shed new light on race and sex differences in achievement and intelligence test scores. In this article, the authors relate ST theory to the psychometric concept of measurement invariance and show that ST effects may be viewed as a source of measurement bias. As such, ST effects are detectable by means of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. This enables research into the generalizability of ST effects to real-life or high-stakes testing. The modeling approach is described in detail and applied to 3 experiments in which the amount of ST for minorities and women was manipulated. Results indicate that ST results in measurement bias of intelligence and mathematics tests. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).
2016-04-04
Final 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Test Operations Procedure (TOP) 03-2-827 Test Procedures for Video Target Scoring Using...ABSTRACT This Test Operations Procedure (TOP) describes typical equipment and procedures to setup and operate a Video Target Scoring System (VTSS) to...lights. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Video Target Scoring System, VTSS, witness screens, camera, target screen, light pole 16. SECURITY
Counterbalance Assessment: The Chorizo Test
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cabrera, Nolan L.; Cabrera, George A.
2011-01-01
Just like all the high-stakes tests that determine students' futures nowadays, The Chorizo Test is a standardized test rooted in the culture of the test makers. It was originally created to be used with students in teacher training programs to sensitize them to the pitfalls inherent in standardized pencil-and-paper tests, such as linguistic bias…
Semi-Quantitative Scoring of an Immunochromatographic Test for Circulating Filarial Antigen
Chesnais, Cédric B.; Missamou, François; Pion, Sébastien D. S.; Bopda, Jean; Louya, Frédéric; Majewski, Andrew C.; Weil, Gary J.; Boussinesq, Michel
2013-01-01
The value of a semi-quantitative scoring of the filarial antigen test (Binax Now Filariasis card test, ICT) results was evaluated during a field survey in the Republic of Congo. One hundred and thirty-four (134) of 774 tests (17.3%) were clearly positive and were scored 1, 2, or 3; and 11 (1.4%) had questionable results. Wuchereria bancrofti microfilariae (mf) were detected in 41 of those 133 individuals with an ICT test score ≥ 1 who also had a night blood smear; none of the 11 individuals with questionable ICT results harbored night mf. Cuzick's test showed a significant trend for higher microfilarial densities in groups with higher ICT scores (P < 0.001). The ICT scores were also significantly correlated with blood mf counts. Because filarial antigen levels provide an indication of adult worm infection intensity, our results suggest that semi-quantitative reading of the ICT may be useful for grading the intensity of filarial infections in individuals and populations. PMID:24019435
Hierarchical cultural values predict success and mortality in high-stakes teams.
Anicich, Eric M; Swaab, Roderick I; Galinsky, Adam D
2015-02-03
Functional accounts of hierarchy propose that hierarchy increases group coordination and reduces conflict. In contrast, dysfunctional accounts claim that hierarchy impairs performance by preventing low-ranking team members from voicing their potentially valuable perspectives and insights. The current research presents evidence for both the functional and dysfunctional accounts of hierarchy within the same dataset. Specifically, we offer empirical evidence that hierarchical cultural values affect the outcomes of teams in high-stakes environments through group processes. Experimental data from a sample of expert mountain climbers from 27 countries confirmed that climbers expect that a hierarchical culture leads to improved team coordination among climbing teams, but impaired psychological safety and information sharing compared with an egalitarian culture. An archival analysis of 30,625 Himalayan mountain climbers from 56 countries on 5,104 expeditions found that hierarchy both elevated and killed in the Himalayas: Expeditions from more hierarchical countries had more climbers reach the summit, but also more climbers die along the way. Importantly, we established the role of group processes by showing that these effects occurred only for group, but not solo, expeditions. These findings were robust to controlling for environmental factors, risk preferences, expedition-level characteristics, country-level characteristics, and other cultural values. Overall, this research demonstrates that endorsing cultural values related to hierarchy can simultaneously improve and undermine group performance.
Hierarchical cultural values predict success and mortality in high-stakes teams
Anicich, Eric M.; Swaab, Roderick I.; Galinsky, Adam D.
2015-01-01
Functional accounts of hierarchy propose that hierarchy increases group coordination and reduces conflict. In contrast, dysfunctional accounts claim that hierarchy impairs performance by preventing low-ranking team members from voicing their potentially valuable perspectives and insights. The current research presents evidence for both the functional and dysfunctional accounts of hierarchy within the same dataset. Specifically, we offer empirical evidence that hierarchical cultural values affect the outcomes of teams in high-stakes environments through group processes. Experimental data from a sample of expert mountain climbers from 27 countries confirmed that climbers expect that a hierarchical culture leads to improved team coordination among climbing teams, but impaired psychological safety and information sharing compared with an egalitarian culture. An archival analysis of 30,625 Himalayan mountain climbers from 56 countries on 5,104 expeditions found that hierarchy both elevated and killed in the Himalayas: Expeditions from more hierarchical countries had more climbers reach the summit, but also more climbers die along the way. Importantly, we established the role of group processes by showing that these effects occurred only for group, but not solo, expeditions. These findings were robust to controlling for environmental factors, risk preferences, expedition-level characteristics, country-level characteristics, and other cultural values. Overall, this research demonstrates that endorsing cultural values related to hierarchy can simultaneously improve and undermine group performance. PMID:25605883
Critical Thinking: More than Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smith, Vernon G.; Szymanski, Antonia
2013-01-01
This article is for practicing or aspiring school administrators. The demand for excellence in public education has lead to an emphasis on standardized test scores. This article explores the development of a professional enhancement program designed to prepare teachers to teach higher order thinking skills. Higher order thinking is the primary…
Yamagishi, Toshio; Li, Yang; Matsumoto, Yoshie; Kiyonari, Toko
2016-01-01
Despite the repeatedly raised criticism that findings in economic games are specific to situations involving trivial incentives, most studies that have examined the stake-size effect have failed to find a strong effect. Using three prisoner’s dilemma experiments, involving 479 non-student residents of suburban Tokyo and 162 students, we show here that stake size strongly affects a player’s cooperation choices in prisoner’s dilemma games when stake size is manipulated within each individual such that each player faces different stake sizes. Participants cooperated at a higher rate when stakes were lower than when they were higher, regardless of the absolute stake size. These findings suggest that participants were ‘moral bargain hunters’ who purchased moral righteousness at a low price when they were provided with a ‘price list’ of prosocial behaviours. In addition, the moral bargain hunters who cooperated at a lower stake but not at a higher stake did not cooperate in a single-stake one-shot game. PMID:27296466
Yamagishi, Toshio; Li, Yang; Matsumoto, Yoshie; Kiyonari, Toko
2016-06-14
Despite the repeatedly raised criticism that findings in economic games are specific to situations involving trivial incentives, most studies that have examined the stake-size effect have failed to find a strong effect. Using three prisoner's dilemma experiments, involving 479 non-student residents of suburban Tokyo and 162 students, we show here that stake size strongly affects a player's cooperation choices in prisoner's dilemma games when stake size is manipulated within each individual such that each player faces different stake sizes. Participants cooperated at a higher rate when stakes were lower than when they were higher, regardless of the absolute stake size. These findings suggest that participants were 'moral bargain hunters' who purchased moral righteousness at a low price when they were provided with a 'price list' of prosocial behaviours. In addition, the moral bargain hunters who cooperated at a lower stake but not at a higher stake did not cooperate in a single-stake one-shot game.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hilgoe, Ellen; Brinkley, Jason; Hattingh, Johannes; Bernhardt, Robert
2016-01-01
Since its establishment in 1996, the North Carolina Early Mathematics Placement Testing (NC EMPT) Program has provided a low stakes reality check of readiness for college-level mathematics to more than 600,000 high school students statewide. The program strives to help reduce the percentage of incoming college freshmen requiring mathematics…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brown, Christopher P; Weber, Natalie Babiak; Yoon, Yeojoo
2016-01-01
This article documents the pedagogical and practical struggles of a sample of early educators in a large urban school district in the USA who engaged in a professional development course which offered them alternative conceptions of teaching that critically questioned the norms and practices of their high-stakes neo-liberal early education system.…
The Black-White Test Score Gap.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jencks, Christopher, Ed.; Phillips, Meredith, Ed.
The 15 chapters of this book address issues related to the continuing test score gap between black and white students. The editors argue against traditional explanations which emphasize differences in economic resources and demographic factors, and they urge that more emphasis be put on psychological and cultural factors. The book suggests studies…
Test Takers and the Validity of Score Interpretations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kopriva, Rebecca J.; Thurlow, Martha L.; Perie, Marianne; Lazarus, Sheryl S.; Clark, Amy
2016-01-01
This article argues that test takers are as integral to determining validity of test scores as defining target content and conditioning inferences on test use. A principled sustained attention to how students interact with assessment opportunities is essential, as is a principled sustained evaluation of evidence confirming the validity or calling…
21 CFR 866.6050 - Ovarian adnexal mass assessment score test system.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-04-01
... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Ovarian adnexal mass assessment score test system... immunological Test Systems § 866.6050 Ovarian adnexal mass assessment score test system. (a) Identification. An ovarian/adnexal mass assessment test system is a device that measures one or more proteins in serum or...
ANOVA Analysis of Student Daily Test Scores in Multi-Day Test Periods
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mouritsen, Matthew L.; Davis, Jefferson T.; Jones, Steven C.
2016-01-01
Instructors are often concerned when giving multiple-day tests because students taking the test later in the exam period may have an advantage over students taking the test early in the exam period due to information leakage. However, exam scores seemed to decline as students took the same test later in a multi-day exam period (Mouritsen and…
IQ Scores Should Not Be Adjusted for the Flynn Effect in Capital Punishment Cases
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hagan, Leigh D.; Drogin, Eric Y.; Guilmette, Thomas J.
2010-01-01
"Atkins v. Virginia" (2002) dramatically raised the stakes for mental retardation in capital punishment cases, but neither defined this condition nor imposed uniform standards for its assessment. The basic premise that mean IQ scores shift over time enjoys wide recognition, but its application--including the appropriateness of…
Scoring Yes-No Vocabulary Tests: Reaction Time vs. Nonword Approaches
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pellicer-Sanchez, Ana; Schmitt, Norbert
2012-01-01
Despite a number of research studies investigating the Yes-No vocabulary test format, one main question remains unanswered: What is the best scoring procedure to adjust for testee overestimation of vocabulary knowledge? Different scoring methodologies have been proposed based on the inclusion and selection of nonwords in the test. However, there…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Knekta, Eva; Eklöf, Hanna
2015-01-01
The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an expectancy-value-based questionnaire measuring five aspects of test-taking motivation (effort, expectancies, importance, interest, and test anxiety). The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of Swedish Grade 9 students taking a low-stakes (n = 1,047) or a high-stakes (n =…
The Effect of Pretest Exercise on Baseline Computerized Neurocognitive Test Scores.
Pawlukiewicz, Alec; Yengo-Kahn, Aaron M; Solomon, Gary
2017-10-01
Baseline neurocognitive assessment plays a critical role in return-to-play decision making following sport-related concussions. Prior studies have assessed the effect of a variety of modifying factors on neurocognitive baseline test scores. However, relatively little investigation has been conducted regarding the effect of pretest exercise on baseline testing. The aim of our investigation was to determine the effect of pretest exercise on baseline Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) scores in adolescent and young adult athletes. We hypothesized that athletes undergoing self-reported strenuous exercise within 3 hours of baseline testing would perform more poorly on neurocognitive metrics and would report a greater number of symptoms than those who had not completed such exercise. Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. The ImPACT records of 18,245 adolescent and young adult athletes were retrospectively analyzed. After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, participants were dichotomized into groups based on a positive (n = 664) or negative (n = 6609) self-reported history of strenuous exercise within 3 hours of the baseline test. Participants with a positive history of exercise were then randomly matched, based on age, sex, education level, concussion history, and hours of sleep prior to testing, on a 1:2 basis with individuals who had reported no pretest exercise. The baseline ImPACT composite scores of the 2 groups were then compared. Significant differences were observed for the ImPACT composite scores of verbal memory, visual memory, reaction time, and impulse control as well as for the total symptom score. No significant between-group difference was detected for the visual motor composite score. Furthermore, pretest exercise was associated with a significant increase in the overall frequency of invalid test results. Our results suggest a statistically significant difference in ImPACT composite scores between
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Goldhaber, Dan; Gratz, Trevor; Theobald, Roddy
2016-01-01
We investigate the relationship between teacher licensure test scores and student test achievement and high school course-taking. We focus on three subject/grade combinations-- middle school math, ninth-grade algebra and geometry, and ninth-grade biology--and find evidence that a teacher's basic skills test scores are modestly predictive of…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Shearouse, Randy
Over half of the states now require students to pass a high stakes exit exam before being allowed to graduate from high school. No Child Left Behind requires that standardized testing be included to determine whether or not a school makes Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The purpose of this study is to examine the results of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) of students who participated in the remedial program Project ExPreSS with those students who did not participate. Using a quantitative research design, the question that will be answered is whether Project ExPreSS makes a difference in passing the GHSGT in science and social studies among three groups: all Georgia students, African American students in one Georgia school system, and all students in one Georgia school system. A chi-square test was conducted and a determination was made that there is a statistically significant relationship between project participation and pass-fail status in all but one area. The majority of students in this study were 17--18 years of age and were taking the science or social studies section of the GHSGT for the second time. The findings of this study will be important not only for Georgia and the school system examined, but also for other states and systems that give High Stakes Exit Exams (HSEEs). The results indicate that highly focused remedial programs like Project ExPreSS make a difference for students who may not be successful on their first attempt at passing a HSEE.
Observed-Score Equating as a Test Assembly Problem.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
van der Linden, Wim J.; Luecht, Richard M.
1998-01-01
Derives a set of linear conditions of item-response functions that guarantees identical observed-score distributions on two test forms. The conditions can be added as constraints to a linear programming model for test assembly. An example illustrates the use of the model for an item pool from the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). (SLD)
Ries, Julie D; Echternach, John L; Nof, Leah; Gagnon Blodgett, Michelle
2009-06-01
With the increasing incidence of Alzheimer disease (AD), determining the validity and reliability of outcome measures for people with this disease is necessary. The goals of this study were to assess test-retest reliability of data for the Timed "Up & Go" Test (TUG), the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and gait speed and to calculate minimal detectable change (MDC) scores for each outcome measure. Performance differences between groups with mild to moderate AD and moderately severe to severe AD (as determined by the Functional Assessment Staging [FAST] scale) were studied. This was a prospective, nonexperimental, descriptive methodological study. Background data collected for 51 people with AD included: use of an assistive device, Mini-Mental Status Examination scores, and FAST scale scores. Each participant engaged in 2 test sessions, separated by a 30- to 60-minute rest period, which included 2 TUG trials, 1 6MWT trial, and 2 gait speed trials using a computerized gait assessment system. A specific cuing protocol was followed to achieve optimal performance during test sessions. Test-retest reliability values for the TUG, the 6MWT, and gait speed were high for all participants together and for the mild to moderate AD and moderately severe to severe AD groups separately (intraclass correlation coefficients > or = .973); however, individual variability of performance also was high. Calculated MDC scores at the 90% confidence interval were: TUG=4.09 seconds, 6MWT=33.5 m (110 ft), and gait speed=9.4 cm/s. The 2 groups were significantly different in performance of clinical tests, with the participants who were more cognitively impaired being more physically and functionally impaired. A single researcher for data collection limited sample numbers and prohibited blinding to dementia level. The TUG, the 6MWT, and gait speed are reliable outcome measures for use with people with AD, recognizing that individual variability of performance is high. Minimal detectable change
A Review of Scoring Algorithms for Ability and Aptitude Tests.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chevalier, Shirley A.
In conventional practice, most educators and educational researchers score cognitive tests using a dichotomous right-wrong scoring system. Although simple and straightforward, this method does not take into consideration other factors, such as partial knowledge or guessing tendencies and abilities. This paper discusses alternative scoring models:…
Score tests for independence in semiparametric competing risks models.
Saïd, Mériem; Ghazzali, Nadia; Rivest, Louis-Paul
2009-12-01
A popular model for competing risks postulates the existence of a latent unobserved failure time for each risk. Assuming that these underlying failure times are independent is attractive since it allows standard statistical tools for right-censored lifetime data to be used in the analysis. This paper proposes simple independence score tests for the validity of this assumption when the individual risks are modeled using semiparametric proportional hazards regressions. It assumes that covariates are available, making the model identifiable. The score tests are derived for alternatives that specify that copulas are responsible for a possible dependency between the competing risks. The test statistics are constructed by adding to the partial likelihoods for the individual risks an explanatory variable for the dependency between the risks. A variance estimator is derived by writing the score function and the Fisher information matrix for the marginal models as stochastic integrals. Pitman efficiencies are used to compare test statistics. A simulation study and a numerical example illustrate the methodology proposed in this paper.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhang, Jizhi; Patterson, Margaret Becker
2010-01-01
Like most high-stakes testing programs, the GED[R] testing program allows examinees who do not pass on the first attempt to retake the GED Tests. Studies and reports have described GED Tests candidates' characteristics and testing performance, but no study has targeted repeat examinees. A series of questions related to repeat examinees remains…
Method and apparatus for staking optical elements
Woods, Robert O.
1988-01-01
A method and apparatus for staking two optical elements together in order to retain their alignment is disclosed. The apparatus includes a removable adaptor made up of first and second adaptor bodies each having a lateral slot in their front and side faces. The adaptor also includes a system for releasably attaching each adaptor body to a respective optical element such that when the two optical elements are positioned relative to one another the adaptor bodies are adjacent and the lateral slots therein are aligned to form key slots. The adaptor includes keys which are adapted to fit into the key slots. A curable filler material is employed to retain the keys in the key slots and thereby join the first and second adaptor bodies to form the adaptor. Also disclosed is a method for staking together two optical elements employing the adaptor of the present invention.
Method and apparatus for staking optical elements
Woods, Robert O.
1988-10-04
A method and apparatus for staking two optical elements together in order to retain their alignment is disclosed. The apparatus includes a removable adaptor made up of first and second adaptor bodies each having a lateral slot in their front and side faces. The adaptor also includes a system for releasably attaching each adaptor body to a respective optical element such that when the two optical elements are positioned relative to one another the adaptor bodies are adjacent and the lateral slots therein are aligned to form key slots. The adaptor includes keys which are adapted to fit into the key slots. A curable filler material is employed to retain the keys in the key slots and thereby join the first and second adaptor bodies to form the adaptor. Also disclosed is a method for staking together two optical elements employing the adaptor of the present invention.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Williams, April Dawn-Nell
2017-01-01
The purpose of the transcendental qualitative phenomenological research is to describe the characteristics and strategies of teachers who share the same experiences in teaching science, a non-assessed content, in a high-stakes assessment environment at the third and fourth grade levels. Teacher curriculum choices are dictated by the need to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Li, Hongli; Xiong, Yao
2018-01-01
The passage of the NCLB Act enhanced accountability policies in the United States, and standardized testing became prevalent as a policy tool to ensure accountability in K-12 education. Given the high stakes of state administered accountability tests, more school teachers have adopted test-preparation strategies to ensure satisfactory student…
Economic impact of 21-gene recurrence score testing on early-stage breast cancer in Ireland.
Smyth, Lillian; Watson, Geoff; Walsh, Elaine M; Kelly, Catherine M; Keane, Maccon; Kennedy, M John; Grogan, Liam; Hennessy, Bryan T; O'Reilly, Seamus; Coate, Linda E; O'Connor, Miriam; Quinn, Cecily; Verleger, Katharina; Schoeman, Olaf; O'Reilly, Susan; Walshe, Janice M
2015-10-01
The 21-gene test is a validated multi-gene diagnostic test that predicts chemotherapy (CT) benefit in oestrogen receptor positive (ER+), lymph node-negative (N0) breast cancer (BC) patients (pts). Ireland was the first public health care system to reimburse this test in Europe. Study objectives were to assess the impact of this test on decision-making and to analyse the economic impact of testing. Between October 2011 and February 2013, a national, retrospective, cross-sectional observational study of ER+, N0 BC pts tested with the 21-gene test was conducted. Surveyed breast medical oncologists, provided the assumption for the decision impact analysis that grade (G) 1 pts would not have received CT before testing and G2/3 pts would have received CT before testing. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed. 592 pts were identified; Low, intermediate and high recurrence score were identified in 53, 36 and 10 % pts, respectively. 384 (70 %) pts had G2, 129 (22 %) G3 and 76 (13 %) G1 tumours. Post testing, 345 pts (59 %) experienced a change in CT decision; 339 changed to hormone therapy alone and 6 advised to receive CT. 172 (30 %) pts received CT, 12 (3.9 %) of pts with low scores, 108 (50.9 %) of intermediate risk and 50 (90.9 %) of pts with high risk scores. Net reduction in CT use was 58 % and net savings achieved were €793,565. Since public reimbursement, the introduction of the 21-gene test has resulted in a significant reduction in chemotherapy administration and cost savings for the Irish public healthcare system.
Stress and Job Satisfaction among Secondary School Principals in Texas
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Romney, Angela G.
2012-01-01
The role of a secondary school principal continues to expand and increase principals' daily workload. The high stakes testing environment also places pressure on principals to ensure that students score high on standardized tests. With a heavy workload, principals find themselves faced with numerous work-related stressors that influence job…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Musekamp, Frank; Pearce, Jacob
2016-01-01
The goal of this paper is to examine the relationship of student motivation and achievement in low-stakes assessment contexts. Using Pearson product-moment correlations and hierarchical linear regression modelling to analyse data on 794 tertiary students who undertook a low-stakes engineering mechanics assessment (along with the questionnaire of…
Relationships of Declining Test Scores and Grade Inflation.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bellott, Fred K.
The relationship between declining scores on national standardized tests and grade inflation is explored. Grade inflation refers to the indicated measure of evaluation of student performance having higher placement than is usual based on the performances. Data for this study were taken from the American College Testing (ACT) Program Class Profile…
Exploring Equity Properties in Equating Using AP® Examinations. Research Report No. 2012-4
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Eunjung; Lee, Won-Chan; Brennan, Robert L.
2012-01-01
In almost all high-stakes testing programs, test equating is necessary to ensure that test scores across multiple test administrations are equivalent and can be used interchangeably. Test equating becomes even more challenging in mixed-format tests, such as Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) Exams, that contain both multiple-choice and constructed…
Deck, Sébastien; Gand, Fabien; Brunet, Vincent; Ben Khelil, Saloua
2014-01-01
This paper provides an up-to-date survey of the use of zonal detached eddy simulations (ZDES) for unsteady civil aircraft applications as a reflection on the stakes and perspectives of the use of hybrid methods in the framework of industrial aerodynamics. The issue of zonal or non-zonal treatment of turbulent flows for engineering applications is discussed. The ZDES method used in this article and based on a fluid problem-dependent zonalization is briefly presented. Some recent landmark achievements for conditions all over the flight envelope are presented, including low-speed (aeroacoustics of high-lift devices and landing gear), cruising (engine–airframe interactions), propulsive jets and off-design (transonic buffet and dive manoeuvres) applications. The implications of such results and remaining challenges in a more global framework are further discussed. PMID:25024411
D.C. Student Test Scores Show Uneven Progress. Data Snapshot
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
DuPre, Mary
2011-01-01
Over the past five years, both DC Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools (PCS) have seen significant growth in secondary reading and math scores on the state test known as the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS). However, scores have not improved as much at the elementary level. Reading and math scores for DCPS…
Reliability of Total Test Scores When Considered as Ordinal Measurements
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Biswas, Ajoy Kumar
2006-01-01
This article studies the ordinal reliability of (total) test scores. This study is based on a classical-type linear model of observed score (X), true score (T), and random error (E). Based on the idea of Kendall's tau-a coefficient, a measure of ordinal reliability for small-examinee populations is developed. This measure is extended to large…
International English Language Testing: A Critical Response
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hall, Graham
2010-01-01
Uysal's article provides a research agenda for IELTS and lists numerous issues concerning the test's reliability and validity. She asks useful questions, but her analysis ignores the uncertainties inherent in all language test development and the wider social and political context of international high-stakes language testing. In this response, I…
Kim, Chong H; Simmons, Sierra C; Williams, Lance A; Staley, Elizabeth M; Zheng, X Long; Pham, Huy P
2017-11-01
The ADAMTS13 test distinguishes thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) from other thrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs). The PLASMIC score helps determine the pretest probability of ADAMTS13 deficiency. Due to inherent limitations of both tests, and potential adverse effects and cost of unnecessary treatments, we performed a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) investigating the benefits of incorporating an in-hospital ADAMTS13 test and/or PLASMIC score into our clinical practice. A CEA model was created to compare four scenarios for patients with TMAs, utilizing either an in-house or a send-out ADAMTS13 assay with or without prior risk stratification using PLASMIC scoring. Model variables, including probabilities and costs, were gathered from the medical literature, except for the ADAMTS13 send-out and in-house tests, which were obtained from our institutional data. If only the cost is considered, in-house ADAMTS13 test for patients with intermediate- to high-risk PLASMIC score is the least expensive option ($4,732/patient). If effectiveness is assessed as measured by the number of averted deaths, send-out ADAMTS13 test is the most effective. Considering the cost/effectiveness ratio, the in-house ADAMTS13 test in patients with intermediate- to high-risk PLASMIC score is the best option, followed by the in-house ADAMTS13 test without the PLASMIC score. In patients with clinical presentations of TMAs, having an in-hospital ADAMTS13 test to promptly establish the diagnosis of TTP appears to be cost-effective. Utilizing the PLASMIC score further increases the cost-effectiveness of the in-house ADAMTS13 test. Our findings indicate the benefit of having a rapid and reliable in-house ADAMTS13 test, especially in the tertiary medical center. © 2017 AABB.
Saudek, Kris; Treat, Robert
2015-01-01
Purpose At our institution, speculation amongst medical students and faculty exists as to whether team-based learning (TBL) can improve scores on high-stakes examinations over traditional didactic lectures. Faculty with experience using TBL developed and piloted a required TBL blood disorders (BD) module for third-year medical students on their pediatric clerkship. The purpose of this study is to analyze the BD scores from the NBME subject exams before and after the introduction of the module. Methods We analyzed institutional and national item difficulties for BD items from the NBME pediatrics content area item analysis reports from 2011 to 2014 before (pre) and after (post) the pilot (October 2012). Total scores of 590 NBME subject examination students from examinee performance profiles were analyzed pre/post. t-Tests and Cohen's d effect sizes were used to analyze item difficulties for institutional versus national scores and pre/post comparisons of item difficulties and total scores. Results BD scores for our institution were 0.65 (±0.19) compared to 0.62 (±0.15) nationally (P=0.346; Cohen's d=0.15). The average of post-consecutive BD scores for our students was 0.70(±0.21) compared to examinees nationally [0.64 (±0.15)] with a significant mean difference (P=0.031; Cohen's d=0.43). The difference in our institutions pre [0.65 (±0.19)] and post [0.70 (±0.21)] BD scores trended higher (P=0.391; Cohen's d=0.27). Institutional BD scores were higher than national BD scores for both pre and post, with an effect size that tripled from pre to post scores. Institutional BD scores increased after the use of the TBL module, while overall exam scores remained steadily above national norms. Conclusions Institutional BD scores were higher than national BD scores for both pre and post, with an effect size that tripled from pre to post scores. Institutional BD scores increased after the use of the TBL module, while overall exam scores remained steadily above national
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Magee, Robert G.; Jones, Brett D.
2012-01-01
This article describes the development of an instrument to assess beliefs about standardized testing in schools, a topic of much heated debate. The Beliefs About Standardized Testing scale was developed to measure the extent to which individuals support high-stakes standardized testing. The 9-item scale comprises three subscales which measure…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Makransky, Guido; Mortensen, Erik Lykke; Glas, Cees A. W.
2013-01-01
Narrowly defined personality facet scores are commonly reported and used for making decisions in clinical and organizational settings. Although these facets are typically related, scoring is usually carried out for a single facet at a time. This method can be ineffective and time consuming when personality tests contain many highly correlated…
Denehy, Linda; de Morton, Natalie A; Skinner, Elizabeth H; Edbrooke, Lara; Haines, Kimberley; Warrillow, Stephen; Berney, Sue
2013-12-01
Several tests have recently been developed to measure changes in patient strength and functional outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU). The original Physical Function ICU Test (PFIT) demonstrates reliability and sensitivity. The aims of this study were to further develop the original PFIT, to derive an interval score (the PFIT-s), and to test the clinimetric properties of the PFIT-s. A nested cohort study was conducted. One hundred forty-four and 116 participants performed the PFIT at ICU admission and discharge, respectively. Original test components were modified using principal component analysis. Rasch analysis examined the unidimensionality of the PFIT, and an interval score was derived. Correlations tested validity, and multiple regression analyses investigated predictive ability. Responsiveness was assessed using the effect size index (ESI), and the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was calculated. The shoulder lift component was removed. Unidimensionality of combined admission and discharge PFIT-s scores was confirmed. The PFIT-s displayed moderate convergent validity with the Timed "Up & Go" Test (r=-.60), the Six-Minute Walk Test (r=.41), and the Medical Research Council (MRC) sum score (rho=.49). The ESI of the PFIT-s was 0.82, and the MCID was 1.5 points (interval scale range=0-10). A higher admission PFIT-s score was predictive of: an MRC score of ≥48, increased likelihood of discharge home, reduced likelihood of discharge to inpatient rehabilitation, and reduced acute care hospital length of stay. Scoring of sit-to-stand assistance required is subjective, and cadence cutpoints used may not be generalizable. The PFIT-s is a safe and inexpensive test of physical function with high clinical utility. It is valid, responsive to change, and predictive of key outcomes. It is recommended that the PFIT-s be adopted to test physical function in the ICU.
Between-District Test Score Variation, 2009-2012
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fahle, Erin; Reardon, Sean
2016-01-01
Describing the variation in test scores between and within school districts is critical for: (1) for policy-related and descriptive work that investigates the sorting of students among districts and the differential effectiveness of those districts; and (2) for methodological work planning future experiments or interventions. Intraclass…
The Persisting Racial Scoring Gap on Graduate and Professional School Admission Tests.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 2003
2003-01-01
Discusses the racial scoring gap on tests for admission to medical, business, law, and other graduate programs, noting that in the highest-scoring brackets on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), the racial gap is even larger. Whites are five times, twelve times, and seven times more likely, respectively, to score higher on the MCAT, Law…
The Failed Metaphors of Testing.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, M. Gail; Hargrove, Tracy Y.; Jones, Brett D.
2003-01-01
An essay drawn from a book on the unintended effects of high-stakes tests claims that public images of student assessment are influenced significantly by the cultural symbols of the one-room schoolhouse, sports competition, the factory model, and Disney. (Author/MLF)
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Berryhill, Katie J.
As astronomy education researchers become more interested in experimentally testing innovative teaching strategies to enhance learning in introductory astronomy survey courses ("ASTRO 101"), scholars are placing increased attention toward better understanding factors impacting student gain scores on the widely used Test Of Astronomy STandards (TOAST). Usually used in a pre-test and post-test research design, one might naturally assume that the pre-course differences observed between high- and low-scoring college students might be due in large part to their pre-existing motivation, interest, experience in science, and attitudes about astronomy. To explore this notion, 11 non-science majoring undergraduates taking ASTRO 101 at west coast community colleges were interviewed in the first few weeks of the course to better understand students' pre-existing affect toward learning astronomy with an eye toward predicting student success. In answering this question, we hope to contribute to our understanding of the incoming knowledge of students taking undergraduate introductory astronomy classes, but also gain insight into how faculty can best meet those students' needs and assist them in achieving success. Perhaps surprisingly, there was only weak correlation between students' motivation toward learning astronomy and their pre-test scores. Instead, the most fruitful predictor of TOAST pre-test scores was the quantity of pre-existing, informal, self-directed astronomy learning experiences.
Comparability of IQ Scores on Five Widely Used Intelligence Tests
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hieronymus, A. N.; Stroud, James B.
1969-01-01
Attempts to fill research gap on testing by obtaining comparisons of deviation scores, at grade levels four, seven, and ten, from the California Test of Mental Maturity, Henmon-Nelson Tests, and Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence tests. Results tabulated. (CJ)
Prenatal High Risk Scoring: How Family Doctors Do It
Shea, Philip
1978-01-01
Assessment of risk factors is an integral part of family medicine and of prenatal care. A strong positive relationship has been demonstrated between a high risk score and higher incidence of maternal or perinatal morbidity and mortality. The family physician, because of his previous knowledge of the patient, and his familiarity with a broad range of normals, is in a good position to use his clinical judgement in high risk scoring in pregnancy. We must also be cautious that high risk scoring does not become a self fulfilling prophecy. Risk scoring is simply risk scoring, not a plan of management and intervention. PMID:21301562
A pretest prognostic score to assess patients undergoing exercise or pharmacological stress testing.
Morise, Anthony; Evans, Matthew; Jalisi, Farrukh; Shetty, Rajendra; Stauffer, Marc
2007-02-01
A previously developed pretest score was validated to stratify patients presenting for exercise testing with suspected coronary disease according to the presence of angiographic coronary disease. Our goal was to determine how well this pretest score risk stratified patients undergoing pharmacological and exercise stress tests concerning prognostic endpoints. Retrospective cohort analysis. University hospital stress laboratory. 7452 unselected ambulatory patients with symptoms of suspected coronary disease undergoing stress testing between 1995 and 2004. All-cause death, cardiac death and non-fatal myocardial infarction. The rate of all-cause death was 5.5% (CI 5.0 to 6.1) with 4.3 (SD 2.4) years of follow-up (Exercise 2.8% (CI 2.3 to 3.2) v Pharmacological group 11.9% (CI 10.5 to 13.3); p<0.001). The rate of cardiac death/myocardial infarction was 2.6% (CI 2.2 to 3.0) (Exercise 1.4% (CI 1.1 to 1.8) v Pharmacological group 5.3% (CI 4.3 to 6.2); p<0.001). In both groups, stratification by pretest score was significant for all-cause death and the combined endpoint. However, stratification was more effective in the pharmacological group using the combined endpoint rather than all-cause death. Pharmacological stress patients in intermediate and high risk groups were at higher risk than their respective exercise test cohorts. Referral for pharmacological stress testing was found to be an independent predictor of time to death (2.7 (CI 2.0 to 3.6); p<0.001). A pretest score previously validated to stratify according to angiographic outcomes, effectively risk stratified pharmacological and exercise stress patients according to the combined endpoint of cardiac death/myocardial infarction.
PSAT Testing: Blunder Causes Staffing Reassignment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Uribe, Patricia E.
2015-01-01
This case exemplifies the effects of high stakes standardized testing and accountability on education and school district personnel. The case focuses on a school counselor who inadvertently gave the students the actual PSAT (a preliminary college entrance exam) instead of a practice test during a college preparatory workshop. The error caused the…
Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities Test Scores: A UK National Picture
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Strand, Steve; Deary, Ian J.; Smith, Pauline
2006-01-01
Background and aims: There is uncertainty about the extent or even existence of sex differences in the mean and variability of reasoning test scores ( Jensen, 1998; Lynn, 1994, ; Mackintosh, 1996). This paper analyses the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) scores of a large and representative sample of UK pupils to determine the extent of any sex…
The Impact of Brain-Based Instruction on Reading Achievement in a Second-Grade Classroom
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McNamee, Merideth M.
2011-01-01
School accountability and high-stakes testing often shift classroom focus from the use of engaging learning activities that promote critical thinking and creativity to simple test preparation practices. Using brain research as a guide, educators may be able to improve test scores, while still providing a balanced education that promotes critical…
Adapting construction staking to modern technology : final report.
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2017-08-01
This report summarizes the tasks and findings of the ICT Project R27-163, Adapting Construction Staking to Modern Technology, which aims to develop written procedures for the use of modern technologies (such as GPS and civil information modeling) in ...
Teacher Use of Achievement Test Score Data
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Steven C.
2012-01-01
The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) has invested time and money developing standardized achievement test score reports designed to give teachers data about each of their students' levels of mastery of particular concepts in order to differentiate their instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which eighth-grade…
Test Review: Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Malone, Margaret E.
2010-01-01
This article presents a review of the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment, a high stakes standardized test of the English language. It is a topic-based test that integrates listening, reading, writing and speaking. The test is designed to describe the level of English language proficiency of test takers planning to study at…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Seonghoon
2013-01-01
With known item response theory (IRT) item parameters, Lord and Wingersky provided a recursive algorithm for computing the conditional frequency distribution of number-correct test scores, given proficiency. This article presents a generalized algorithm for computing the conditional distribution of summed test scores involving real-number item…
Comprehensive School Reform and Standardized Test Scores in Illinois Elementary and Middle Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McEnroe, James D.
2010-01-01
The study examined the effects of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program on student performance on mandated standardized tests. The study focused on the mathematics and reading scores of Illinois public elementary and middle and junior high school students. The federal CSR program provided Illinois schools with an annual…
Identification and Validation of a Brief Test Anxiety Screening Tool
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
von der Embse, Nathaniel P.; Kilgus, Stephen P.; Segool, Natasha; Putwain, Dave
2013-01-01
The implementation of test-based accountability policies around the world has increased the pressure placed on students to perform well on state achievement tests. Educational researchers have begun taking a closer look at the reciprocal effects of test anxiety and high-stakes testing. However, existing test anxiety assessments lack efficiency and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tyler, John H.; Murnane, Richard J.; Willett, John B.
2004-01-01
As part of standards-based educational reform efforts, more than 40 states will soon require students to achieve passing scores on standardized exams in order to obtain a high school diploma. Currently, many states are struggling with the design of their examination systems, debating such questions as which subjects should be tested, what should…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Albertson, Bonnie
2007-01-01
The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of formulaic writing such as the five-paragraph theme (FPT) or essay for the purpose of earning high scores on high-stakes writing assessments. This qualitative descriptive study analyzed more than 1000 essays from Delaware Grade 8 and 10 writers, written for a statewide…
Reading Quizzes Improve Exam Scores for Community College Students.
Pape-Lindstrom, Pamela; Eddy, Sarah; Freeman, Scott
2018-06-01
To test the hypothesis that adding course structure may encourage self-regulated learning skills resulting in an increase in student exam performance in the community college setting, we added daily preclass online, open-book reading quizzes to an introductory biology course. We compared three control terms without reading quizzes and three experimental terms with online, open-book reading quizzes; the instructor of record, class size, and instructional time did not vary. Analyzing the Bloom's taxonomy level of a random sample of exam questions indicated a similar cognitive level of high-stakes assessments across all six terms in the study. To control for possible changes in student preparation or ability over time, we calculated each student's grade point average in courses other than biology during the term under study and included it as a predictor variable in our regression models. Our final model showed that students in the experimental terms had significantly higher exam scores than students in the control terms. This result shows that online reading quizzes can boost achievement in community college students. We also comment on the importance of discipline-based education research in community college settings and the structure of our community college/4-year institution collaboration.
Ahmed, Haitham M; Al-Mallah, Mouaz H; McEvoy, John W; Nasir, Khurram; Blumenthal, Roger S; Jones, Steven R; Brawner, Clinton A; Keteyian, Steven J; Blaha, Michael J
2015-03-01
To determine which routinely collected exercise test variables most strongly correlate with survival and to derive a fitness risk score that can be used to predict 10-year survival. This was a retrospective cohort study of 58,020 adults aged 18 to 96 years who were free of established heart disease and were referred for an exercise stress test from January 1, 1991, through May 31, 2009. Demographic, clinical, exercise, and mortality data were collected on all patients as part of the Henry Ford ExercIse Testing (FIT) Project. Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify exercise test variables most predictive of survival. A "FIT Treadmill Score" was then derived from the β coefficients of the model with the highest survival discrimination. The median age of the 58,020 participants was 53 years (interquartile range, 45-62 years), and 28,201 (49%) were female. Over a median of 10 years (interquartile range, 8-14 years), 6456 patients (11%) died. After age and sex, peak metabolic equivalents of task and percentage of maximum predicted heart rate achieved were most highly predictive of survival (P<.001). Subsequent addition of baseline blood pressure and heart rate, change in vital signs, double product, and risk factor data did not further improve survival discrimination. The FIT Treadmill Score, calculated as [percentage of maximum predicted heart rate + 12(metabolic equivalents of task) - 4(age) + 43 if female], ranged from -200 to 200 across the cohort, was near normally distributed, and was found to be highly predictive of 10-year survival (Harrell C statistic, 0.811). The FIT Treadmill Score is easily attainable from any standard exercise test and translates basic treadmill performance measures into a fitness-related mortality risk score. The FIT Treadmill Score should be validated in external populations. Copyright © 2015 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Effect of Font Selection on Student Test Anxiety
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Murphy, Peter V.
2014-01-01
The emergence of standards-based curriculums has resulted in an increased frequency of student testing, including high-stakes testing. Of students who take tests, up to 65% may experience test anxiety, which can have negative effects on student outcomes. For this reason, the purpose of this single-group, repeated measures design, quantitative…
A weighted generalized score statistic for comparison of predictive values of diagnostic tests
Kosinski, Andrzej S.
2013-01-01
Positive and negative predictive values are important measures of a medical diagnostic test performance. We consider testing equality of two positive or two negative predictive values within a paired design in which all patients receive two diagnostic tests. The existing statistical tests for testing equality of predictive values are either Wald tests based on the multinomial distribution or the empirical Wald and generalized score tests within the generalized estimating equations (GEE) framework. As presented in the literature, these test statistics have considerably complex formulas without clear intuitive insight. We propose their re-formulations which are mathematically equivalent but algebraically simple and intuitive. As is clearly seen with a new re-formulation we present, the generalized score statistic does not always reduce to the commonly used score statistic in the independent samples case. To alleviate this, we introduce a weighted generalized score (WGS) test statistic which incorporates empirical covariance matrix with newly proposed weights. This statistic is simple to compute, it always reduces to the score statistic in the independent samples situation, and it preserves type I error better than the other statistics as demonstrated by simulations. Thus, we believe the proposed WGS statistic is the preferred statistic for testing equality of two predictive values and for corresponding sample size computations. The new formulas of the Wald statistics may be useful for easy computation of confidence intervals for difference of predictive values. The introduced concepts have potential to lead to development of the weighted generalized score test statistic in a general GEE setting. PMID:22912343
Using Raters from India to Score a Large-Scale Speaking Test
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Xi, Xiaoming; Mollaun, Pam
2011-01-01
We investigated the scoring of the Speaking section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM] Internet-based (TOEFL iBT[R]) test by speakers of English and one or more Indian languages. We explored the extent to which raters from India, after being trained and certified, were able to score the TOEFL examinees with mixed first languages…
The impact of testing accommodations on MCAT scores: descriptive results.
Julian, Ellen R; Ingersoll, Deborah J; Etienne, Patricia M; Hilger, Anthony E
2004-04-01
Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) examinees with disabilities who receive accommodations receive flagged scores indicating nonstandard administration. This report compares MCAT examinees who received accommodations and their performances with standard examinees. Aggregate history records of all 1994-2000 MCAT examinees were identified as flagged (2,401) or standard (297,880), then further sorted by race/ethnicity (broadly identified as underrepresented minority and non-URM, at the time of testing) and gender. Those with flagged scores were also classified by disability (LD = learning disability, ADHD = attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, LD/ADHD = learning disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Other = other disability) and type of accommodation. Mean MCAT scores were calculated for all groups. A group of 866 examinees took the MCAT first as a standard administration and subsequently with accommodations. In a separate analysis, their two sets of scores were compared. Less than 1% of examinees (2,401) had accommodations; of these, 55% were LD, 17% ADHD, 5% LD/ADHD, and 23% Other. Extended time was the most frequently provided accommodation. Mean flagged scores slightly exceeded mean standard scores on all MCAT sections. Examinees who retook the MCAT with accommodations after a standard administration increased their scores by six points, quadrupling the average gain Standard-Standard retest cohort from another study. The small but statistically significant different higher flagged scores may reflect either appropriate compensation or overly generous accommodations. Extended time had a positive impact on the scores of those who retested with this accommodation. The validity the flagged MCAT in predicting success in medical school is not known, and further investigation is underway.
Leveraging Gender Differences to Boost Test Scores
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Costello, Bill
2008-01-01
According to the 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress, males who have made it through 12 years of school have significantly poorer reading skills than their female peers. In every age group, boys have been scoring lower than girls annually for more than three decades on U.S. Department of Education reading tests. The longer boys are in…
[Relationship between unipedal stance test score and center of pressure velocity in elderly].
Rodrigo Antonio, Guzmán; Rony, Silvestre; Francisco Aniceto, Rodríguez; David Andrés, Arriagada; Pablo Andrés, Ortega
2011-01-01
Frequent falls are one of the most important health problems in the elderly population. The unipedal stance test (UPST), asses postural stability and is used in fall risk measures. Despite this, there is little information about its relationship with posturographic parameters (PP) that characterizes postural stability. Center of pressure velocity (CoPV) is one of the best PP that describes postural stability. The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between UST score and CoPV in elderly population. A sample of 38 healthy elderly subjects where divided in two groups according to their UPST score, low performance (LP, n=11) and high performance (HP, n=27). The correlation between UPST score and COP mean velocity (CoPmV), recorded from a posturographic test, was analyzed between both groups. An inverse correlation between UPST score and CoPmV was found in both groups. However, this was higher in the LP group (r=-0.69, P=.02) compared to the HP (r=-0.39, P=.04). Based on the results of this investigation, it may be concluded that the achievement on UPST has an inverse relationship with CoPmV, especially in subjects with low performance in the UPST. Copyright © 2010 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.
Training Senior Teachers in Compulsory Computer Based Language Tests
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laborda, Jesus Garcia; Royo, Teresa Magal
2009-01-01
The IBT TOEFL has become the principal example of online high stakes language testing since 2005. Most instructors who do the preparation for IBT TOEFL face two main realities: first, students are eager and highly motivated to take the test because of the prospective implications; and, second, specific studies would be necessary to see if…
Correction for Guessing in the Framework of the 3PL Item Response Theory
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chiu, Ting-Wei
2010-01-01
Guessing behavior is an important topic with regard to assessing proficiency on multiple choice tests, particularly for examinees at lower levels of proficiency due to greater the potential for systematic error or bias which that inflates observed test scores. Methods that incorporate a correction for guessing on high-stakes tests generally rely…
A pretest prognostic score to assess patients undergoing exercise or pharmacological stress testing
Morise, Anthony; Evans, Matthew; Jalisi, Farrukh; Shetty, Rajendra; Stauffer, Marc
2007-01-01
Objective A previously developed pretest score was validated to stratify patients presenting for exercise testing with suspected coronary disease according to the presence of angiographic coronary disease. Our goal was to determine how well this pretest score risk stratified patients undergoing pharmacological and exercise stress tests concerning prognostic endpoints. Design Retrospective cohort analysis. Setting University hospital stress laboratory. Patients 7452 unselected ambulatory patients with symptoms of suspected coronary disease undergoing stress testing between 1995 and 2004. Main outcomes measures All‐cause death, cardiac death and non‐fatal myocardial infarction. Results The rate of all‐cause death was 5.5% (CI 5.0 to 6.1) with 4.3 (SD 2.4) years of follow‐up (Exercise 2.8% (CI 2.3 to 3.2) v Pharmacological group 11.9% (CI 10.5 to 13.3); p<0.001). The rate of cardiac death/myocardial infarction was 2.6% (CI 2.2 to 3.0) (Exercise 1.4% (CI 1.1 to 1.8) v Pharmacological group 5.3% (CI 4.3 to 6.2); p<0.001). In both groups, stratification by pretest score was significant for all‐cause death and the combined endpoint. However, stratification was more effective in the pharmacological group using the combined endpoint rather than all‐cause death. Pharmacological stress patients in intermediate and high risk groups were at higher risk than their respective exercise test cohorts. Referral for pharmacological stress testing was found to be an independent predictor of time to death (2.7 (CI 2.0 to 3.6); p<0.001). Conclusion A pretest score previously validated to stratify according to angiographic outcomes, effectively risk stratified pharmacological and exercise stress patients according to the combined endpoint of cardiac death/myocardial infarction. PMID:17228070
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pisano, Mark C.
The differences in California Achievement Test (CAT) scores from 1990 to 1991 in seventh graders, currently enrolled in Albritton Junior High School in the Fort Bragg Schools, of deployed and nondeployed fathers were analyzed. CAT percentile scores from 1990 and 1991 (1991 being the year of "Desert Storm") were obtained in reading, math…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lowe, Patricia A.; Peyton, Vicki; Reynolds, Cecil R.
2007-01-01
A sample of 79 individuals participated in the present study to evaluate the test score stability (8-week test-retest interval) and construct validity of the scores of the Adult Manifest Anxiety Scale-College Version, a new measure used to assess anxiety in college students, for application to graduate-level students. Results of the study…
An Approach to Scoring and Equating Tests with Binary Items: Piloting With Large-Scale Assessments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dimitrov, Dimiter M.
2016-01-01
This article describes an approach to test scoring, referred to as "delta scoring" (D-scoring), for tests with dichotomously scored items. The D-scoring uses information from item response theory (IRT) calibration to facilitate computations and interpretations in the context of large-scale assessments. The D-score is computed from the…
Deck, Sébastien; Gand, Fabien; Brunet, Vincent; Ben Khelil, Saloua
2014-08-13
This paper provides an up-to-date survey of the use of zonal detached eddy simulations (ZDES) for unsteady civil aircraft applications as a reflection on the stakes and perspectives of the use of hybrid methods in the framework of industrial aerodynamics. The issue of zonal or non-zonal treatment of turbulent flows for engineering applications is discussed. The ZDES method used in this article and based on a fluid problem-dependent zonalization is briefly presented. Some recent landmark achievements for conditions all over the flight envelope are presented, including low-speed (aeroacoustics of high-lift devices and landing gear), cruising (engine-airframe interactions), propulsive jets and off-design (transonic buffet and dive manoeuvres) applications. The implications of such results and remaining challenges in a more global framework are further discussed. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.