This technical report documents the processes and procedures employed by NWEA® to build and support the English MAP® Reading Fluency™ assessments administered during the 2020-2021 school year. It is written for measurement professionals and administrators to help evaluate the quality of MAP Reading Fluency. The seven sections of this report: (1)…

This action research project sought to understand how giving students a choice in how to demonstrate mastery of a reading would affect both grades and evaluations of the instructor, given that assessment choice might increase student engagement. We examined the effect of student assessment choice on grades and course evaluations, the two…

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with NWEA for the development of the 2024 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2024 Grades 6 and 7 English Language…

Speeded tests set time limits so that few examinees can reach all items, and power tests allow most test-takers sufficient time to attempt all items. Educational achievement tests are sometimes described as "timed power tests" because the amount of time provided is intended to allow nearly all students to complete the test, yet this…

Many studies have demonstrated that testing students on to-be-learned materials can be an effective learning activity. However, past studies have also shown that some practice test formats are more effective than others. Open-ended recall or short answer practice tests may be effective because the questions prompt deeper processing as students…

In 2015, the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) introduced multiple changes in its study design, the most extensive being the transition from paper- to computer-based assessment. We investigated the differences between German students' text responses to eight reading items from the paper-based study in 2012 to text…

Gender differences in reading seem to increase throughout schooling and then decrease or even disappear with age, but the reasons for this are unclear. In this study, we explore whether differences in the way "reading literacy" is operationalised can add to our understanding of varying gender differences in international large-scale…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is an integral measure of academic progress over time. It is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what our nation's students know and can do in various subjects such as civics, mathematics, reading, science, technology and engineering literacy, U.S. history, and…

The Maine Legislature requested the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) to conduct an assessment of standardized testing in Maine schools to understand the amount, cost, and usefulness of it. This report summarizes the resulting effort, which included a literature scan, document analysis, and surveys of two groups of school…

This article describes and reviews the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level General Paper (GP) examination. As a written test that is administered to preuniversity students, the GP examination is internationally recognised and accepted by universities and employers as proof of English competence. In this article, the…

In recent years, computer-based testing (CBT) has grown in popularity, is increasingly being implemented across the United States, and will likely become the primary mode for delivering tests in the future. Although CBT offers many advantages over traditional paper-and-pencil testing, assessment experts, researchers, practitioners, and users have…

This study examined the multiple true-false (MTF) test format in second language testing by comparing multiple-choice (MCQ) and multiple true-false (MTF) test formats in two language areas of general English: vocabulary and reading. Two counter-balanced experimental designs--one for each language area--were examined in terms of the number of MCQ…

This study investigated the equivalence of scores from computerized and paper-and-pencil formats of a series of K-3 reading screening tests. Concerns about score equivalence on the computerized formats were warranted because of the use of reading passages, computer unfamiliarity of primary school students, and teacher versus computer…

Focusing on the relationship between performance on reading tests and dictionary use, this study confirms a previous finding that dictionary availability does not significantly affect test scores; it does, however, lengthen test completion time. The authors discuss experimental conditions, test item types, usability of particular dictionary types,…

Reviews research dealing with test wiseness and concludes that teachers and others who administer tests and those who review results should consider the degree to which test wiseness characteristics might have been operative had a planned effort been undertaken to provide special instruction. (FL)