There has been a growing research interest in the identification and management of disengaged test taking, which poses a validity threat that is particularly prevalent with low-stakes tests. This study investigated effort-moderated (E-M) scoring, in which item responses classified as rapid guesses are identified and excluded from scoring. Using…

In achievement testing there is typically a practical requirement that the set of items administered should be representative of some target content domain. This is accomplished by establishing test blueprints specifying the content constraints to be followed when selecting the items for a test. Sometimes, however, students give disengaged…

The identification of rapid guessing is important to promote the validity of achievement test scores, particularly with low-stakes tests. Effective methods for identifying rapid guesses require reliable threshold methods that are also aligned with test taker behavior. Although several common threshold methods are based on rapid guessing response…

This study investigated test-taking engagement on the Spring 2019 administration of a large-scale state summative assessment. Through the identification of rapid-guessing behavior -- which is a validated indicator of disengagement -- the percentage of Grade 8 test events with meaningful amounts of rapid guessing was 5.5% in mathematics, 6.7% in…

Technology-Enhanced Items (TEIs) have been purported to be more motivating and engaging to test takers than traditional multiple-choice items. The claim of enhanced engagement, however, has thus far received limited research attention. This study examined the rates of rapid-guessing behavior received by three types of items (multiple-choice,…

Disengaged test taking tends to be most prevalent with low-stakes tests. This has led to questions about the validity of aggregated scores from large-scale international assessments such as PISA and TIMSS, as previous research has found a meaningful correlation between the mean engagement and mean performance of countries. The current study, using…

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on K-12 education. Most schools transitioned to remote instruction, and some used remote testing to assess student learning. Remote testing, however, is less controlled than in-school testing, leading to concerns regarding test-taking engagement. This study compared the disengagement of…

When we administer educational achievement tests, we want to be confident that the resulting scores validly indicate what the test takers know and can do. However, if the test is perceived as low stakes by the test taker, disengaged test taking sometimes occurs, which poses a serious threat to score validity. When computer-based tests are used,…

In achievement testing we assume that students will demonstrate their maximum performance as they encounter test items. Sometimes, however, student performance can decline during a test event, which implies that the test score does not represent maximum performance. This study describes a method for identifying significant performance decline and…

The rise of computer-based testing has brought with it the capability to measure more aspects of a test event than simply the answers selected or constructed by the test taker. One behavior that has drawn much research interest is the time test takers spend responding to individual multiple-choice items. In particular, very short response…

This study examined the utility of response time-based analyses in understanding the behavior of unmotivated test takers. For the data from an adaptive achievement test, patterns of observed rapid-guessing behavior and item response accuracy were compared to the behavior expected under several types of models that have been proposed to represent…

Assessment results collected under low-stakes testing situations are subject to effects of low examinee effort. The use of computer-based testing allows researchers to develop new ways of measuring examinee effort, particularly using response times. At the item level, responses can be classified as exhibiting either rapid-guessing behavior or…

Educational program assessment studies often use data from low-stakes tests to provide evidence of program quality. The validity of scores from such tests, however, is potentially threatened by examinee noneffort. This study investigated the extent to which one type of noneffort--rapid-guessing behavior--distorted the results from three types of…

This investigation examined whether different rates of rapid guessing between groups could lead to detectable levels of differential item functioning (DIF) in situations where the item parameters were the same for both groups. Two simulation studies were designed to explore this possibility. The groups in Study 1 were simulated to reflect…

Attali (2005) recently demonstrated that Cronbach's coefficient [alpha] estimate of reliability for number-right multiple-choice tests will tend to be deflated by speededness, rather than inflated as is commonly believed and taught. Although the methods, findings, and conclusions of Attali (2005) are correct, his article may inadvertently invite a…