Purpose: The evaluation of spelling performance in aphasia reveals deficits in written language and can facilitate the design of targeted writing treatments. Nevertheless, manual scoring of spelling performance is time-consuming, laborious, and error prone. We propose a novel method based on the use of distance metrics to automatically score…

The computer-supported writing assessment (CSWA) has been widely used to reduce instructor workload and provide real-time feedback. Interpretability of CSWA draws extensive attention because it can benefit the validity, transparency, and knowledge-aware feedback of academic writing assessments. This study proposes a novel assessment tool,…

Purpose: This study builds a new system for automatically assessing learners' speech elicited from an oral discourse completion task (DCT), and evaluates the prediction capability of the system with a view to better understanding factors deemed influential in predicting speaking proficiency scores and the pedagogical implications of the system.…

The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Grades 5 & 8 Science Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the contents of the manual, and the policies and procedures must be followed…

Language test developers have a responsibility to ensure that their tests are accessible to test takers of various backgrounds and characteristics and also that they have the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability. This principle is widely recognised by educational and language testing associations in guidelines for the production and…

Through Many-Facet Rasch analysis, this study explores the rating differences between 1 computer automatic rater and 5 expert teacher raters on scoring 119 students in a computerized English listening-speaking test. Results indicate that both automatic and the teacher raters demonstrate good inter-rater reliability, though the automatic rater…

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…

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…

This study assessed the interpretability of scaled scores based on either number correct (NC) scoring for a paper-and-pencil test or one of two methods of scoring computer-based tests: an item pattern (IP) scoring method and a method based on equated NC scoring. The equated NC scoring method for computer-based tests was proposed as an alternative…

Six Practice Tests for the iBT gives students plenty of practice as they prepare for the Internet-based TOEFL (iBT) or the new form of the institutional TOEFL (ITP). This new book/audio set contains a concise description of the TOEFL and the types of questions in each section, as well as six full-length tests that have not been published before.…

Although the TOEFL iBT does not have a discrete grammar section, knowledge of English sentence structure is important throughout the test. Essential Grammar for the iBT reviews the skills that are fundamental to success on tests. Content includes noun and verb forms, clauses, agreement, parallel structure, punctuation, and much more. The book may…

Scores assigned by trained raters and by an automated scoring system (SpeechRater[TM]) on the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT[TM] were validated against a communicative competence criterion. Specifically, a sample of 555 undergraduate students listened to speech samples from 184 examinees who took the Test of English as a Foreign Language…

In this research, we investigated the suitability of implementing "e-rater"® automated essay scoring in a high-stakes large-scale English language testing program. We examined the effectiveness of generic scoring and 2 variants of prompt-based scoring approaches. Effectiveness was evaluated on a number of dimensions, including agreement…

Due to the lack of span test for the use in language-specific and cross-language studies, this study provides L1 and L2 researchers with a reliable language-independent span test (math span test) for the measurement of working memory capacity. It also describes the development, validation, and scoring method of this test. This test included 70…

This report presents the results of a research and development effort for SpeechRater? Version 1.0 (v1.0), an automated scoring system for the spontaneous speech of English language learners used operationally in the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ (TOEFL®) Practice Online assessment (TPO). The report includes a summary of the validity…