The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if and to what extent an ELL student's SBELP-RC could predict his or her ACPELA-RC, ACPELA-WP, and ACP-A1. Study participants were ELL students in Grades 9 to 12, attending a Northern Virginia high school. A further purpose of this study was to investigate if and to what extent…

Researchers frequently evaluate rater judgments in performance assessments for evidence of differential rater functioning (DRF), which occurs when rater severity is systematically related to construct-irrelevant student characteristics after controlling for student achievement levels. However, researchers have observed that methods for detecting…

English learners (ELs) in Florida face numerous challenges including low test scores, and high dropout rates, and are typically several years behind their peers when compared to other states. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental ex-post-facto study was to compare the differences between ACCESS 2.0 scores of high school ELs in…

The reform of National College Entrance Examination in Zhejiang Province, China has aroused widespread attention since it was released in 2014. It is notable that new English writing test types were adopted in the English subtest. The continuation task and summary writing become a challenge as well as a promoter for English writing teaching and…

The continuation task, a new form of reading-writing integrated task in which test-takers read an incomplete story and then write the continuation and ending of the story, has been increasingly used in writing assessment, especially in China. However, language-test developers' understanding of the effects of important task-related factors on…

In 2016, 20 states administered the ACT exam to all high school students. Of those 20 states, three use the ACT in their statewide testing program as an assessment for accountability at the high school level. States using the tests as part of an accountability system are required to submit results from an independent alignment study to the U.S.…

Even though there are four English language skills in the Indonesia's national curriculum at upper secondary schools, each of these skills is given an unequal emphasis since only reading and listening skills are formally tested in the national examination. Although writing competence possesses a particular stake as the determinant of students'…

On the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments, the attainment of performance level 4 is intended to indicate college readiness or being "on track" to college and career readiness. Students who achieve Level 4 should have a 0.75 probability of attaining at least a C in entry-level,…

We compared the performance of Hispanic students from California, Texas, and Arizona on the two Advanced Placement (AP) English exams (i.e., English Language and Composition and English Literature and Composition) using archival data from the College Board from 1997 through 2012. Pearson chi-square tests yielded statistically significant…

This report focuses on the initial development of the predicted score paths for ACT Aspire reporting. The paths provide predicted score ranges for the next two years--as well as predicted ACT score ranges for tests administered at grades 9 and 10. Longitudinal ACT Aspire data for students tested in spring 2013 and spring 2014, as well as…

Two approaches to grammar instruction are often discussed in the ESL literature: direct explicit grammar instruction (DEGI) (deduction) and indirect explicit grammar instruction (IEGI) (induction). This study aims to explore the effects of indirect explicit grammar instruction on EFL learners' mastery of English tenses. Ninety-four…

This paper reports on a qualitative research study into the test-taking strategies employed in completing two picture prompt writing tasks--Situational Writing and Interpretational Writing in the Beijing Matriculation English Test. Think-aloud and retrospective interview protocols were collected from twelve Chinese students representing two key…

Since 2002, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) at The George Washington University, a national advocate for public education and improving public schools, has been studying state high school exit examinations--tests students must pass to receive a high school diploma. This year marks the 11th year CEP has reported on exit exams in order to help…

The ACT National Curriculum Survey is a one-of-a-kind nationwide survey of educational practices and expectations conducted by ACT every 3 to 5 years. ACT surveys thousands of middle school/junior high school, secondary, and postsecondary teachers in English/writing, reading (including English language arts and social studies teachers),…

Presented at the Annual National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) in New York in March 2008. This presentation explores how different item weighting can affect the effective weights, validity coefficents and test reliability of composite scores among test takers.