With the widespread use of computers in modern assessment, online calibration has become increasingly popular as a way of replenishing an item pool. The present study discusses online calibration strategies for a joint model of responses and response times. The study proposes likelihood inference methods for item paramter estimation and evaluates…

This research presents a novel reading fluency (rf) measurement formula that accounts for both reading rate and comprehension. Possible formulas were investigated with 68 participants in a strategic reading course in an IEP at a small Pacific Island university. The selected formula's scores demonstrated concurrent validity through strong…

In 2018, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administered two assessments--the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) assessment and the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS)--to two separate nationally representative samples of 8th-grade students in the…

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact, implementation and costs associated with a one-semester elective lab course in 9th grade, Accelerating Literacy for Adolescents (ALFA) Lab, which seeks to improve students' reading achievement, particularly for those from economically disadvantaged communities. This study used three cohorts…

Originally designed for students in Grades 3 through 5, MOCCA (formerly the Multiple-choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment), identifies students who struggle with comprehension, and helps uncover why they struggle. There are many reasons why students might not comprehend what they read. They may struggle with decoding, or reading words…

MOCCA is an online assessment of inferential reading comprehension for students in 3rd through 6th grades. It can be used to identify good readers and, for struggling readers, identify those who overly rely on either a Paraphrasing process or an Elaborating process when their comprehension is incorrect. Here a propensity to over-rely on…

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on preschool children's school readiness skills remains understudied. This research investigates Head Start preschool children's early numeracy, literacy, and executive function outcomes during a pandemic-affected school year, using a novel virtual assessment methodology. Study children (N = 336; mean age = 51…

Three mode comparability studies were conducted on the following Saturday national ACT test dates: October 26, 2019, December 14, 2019, and February 8, 2020. The primary goal of these studies was to evaluate whether ACT scores exhibited mode effects between paper and online testing that would necessitate statistical adjustments to the online…

IEA's International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018 investigated how well students are prepared for study, work, and life in a digital world. ICILS 2018 measured international differences in students' computer and information literacy (CIL): their ability to use computers to investigate, create, participate, and communicate at…

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international comparative study of student performance in reading literacy at the fourth grade. PIRLS 2016 marks the fourth iteration of the study, which has been conducted every 5 years since 2001. New to the PIRLS assessment in 2016, ePIRLS provides a computer-based extension to…

Until 2014, the General Educational Development (GED®) test dominated the high school equivalency (HSE) test market throughout the United States, to the point that educational experts acknowledged the acronym "GED" had become synonymous with "high school equivalency." However, changes to the test, the way it is administered,…

The overall purpose of the research studies described in this report was to investigate the quality of the administration of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) field test during the spring of 2014. These research studies were conducted for the purpose of formative evaluation. Findings from these studies are…

There is strong theoretical support for oral reading fluency (ORF) as an essential building block of reading proficiency. The current and standard ORF assessment procedure requires that students read aloud a grade-level passage (˜ 250 words) in a one-to-one administration, with the number of words read correctly in 60 seconds constituting their…

A top education priority in the United States is to address the needs of one of the fastest growing yet lowest performing student populations--English learner students (Capps et al., 2005). English learner students come from homes where a non-English language is spoken and need additional academic support to access the mainstream curriculum. These…

In preparation for online administration of the ACT® test, ACT conducted studies to examine the comparability of scores between online and paper administrations, including a timing study in fall 2013, a mode comparability study in spring 2014, and a second mode comparability study in spring 2015. This report presents major findings from these…