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…

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…

The Spring 2020 Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) General Summative testing was cancelled due to COVID-19. This technical report documents the processes and procedures that had been implemented to support the Spring 2020 assessments prior to the cancellation. The following sections are presented in this technical report: (1)…

This technical report documents the processes and procedures implemented to support the Spring 2019 Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) General Summative English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics, and Science assessments by NWEA® under the supervision of the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE). The technical report shows how the…

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…

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a state-led consortium designed to create next-generation assessments that, compared to traditional K-12 assessments, more accurately measure student progress toward college and career readiness. The PARCC assessments are aligned to the Common Core State Standards…

This report documents progress at the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) on the feasibility of scoring concept maps using technology. CRESST, in its integrated simulation approach to assessment, has assembled a suite of performance assessment tasks (the integrated simulation) onto which they have mapped the…

Maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimates of proficiency, typically used in adaptive testing, use item weights that depend on test taker proficiency to estimate test taker proficiency. In this study, several methods were explored through computer simulation using fixed item weights, which depend mainly on the items difficulty. The simpler scores…

This report examines issues in the scale-up of assessment software from the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). "Scale-up" is used in a metaphorical sense, meaning adding new assessment tools to CRESST's assessment software. During the past several years, CRESST has been developing and evaluating a…

This publication presents the reports from two studies, Math Online (MOL) and Writing Online (WOL), part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Technology-Based Assessment (TBA) project. Funded by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Technology-Based Assessment project is intended to explore the use of new…

This document reviews several theoretical frameworks of problem-solving, provides a definition of the construct, suggests ways of measuring the construct, focuses on issues for assessment, and provides specifications for the computer-based assessment of problem solving. As defined in the model of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards,…

The studies reported here focus on the effects of mode of administration of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) in grades 4, 8, and 10. These studies, which draw on earlier studies, also examine the mode of administration effect at different levels of keyboarding speed and for students who received special education (SPED)…

The Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments (TRE) study was designed to demonstrate and explore innovative use of computers for developing, administering, scoring, and analyzing the results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments. Two scenarios (Search and Simulation) were created for measuring problem solving…

This report documents the technology initiatives of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) in two broad areas: (1) using technology to improve the quality, utility, and feasibility of existing measures; and (2) using technology to design and develop new assessments and measurement approaches available…

Conventional mastery tests designed to make optimal mastery classifications were compared with fixed-length and variable-length adaptive mastery tests. Comparisons between the testing procedures were made across five content areas in an introductory biology course from tests administered to volunteers. The criterion was the student's standing in…