DRAFT Interim Assessment Test Specification Information
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS/READING GRADE 6 Concept Study 2015-16
Purpose of the Interim Assessments
• A through-course assessment model typically consists of three or four assessments
administered throughout the school year to provide teachers and parents with immediate
feedback for guiding subsequent instruction.
•
A proof of concept study of the model will be conducted for grade 5 math and grade 6
English language arts/reading during the 2015–16 school year to address research
questions intended to determine the feasibility of designing a system for statewide
implementation.
Sampling Procedure
To ensure results are generalizable to the entire state, an iterative stratified random sampling
framework was used to select a representative sample of 35 schools (4,859 students). Three
demographic variables: region, ethnicity, gender, and economically disadvantaged students and
one school-level achievement variable: mean-scale score were used to ensure the sample selected
is representative of the state.
Developing Assessments
• North Carolina educators play an important role in the test development process through
writing and reviewing test items. North Carolina professional educators from across the
state who have current classroom experience are recruited and trained as item writers and
developers for state tests. Diversity among the item writers and their knowledge of the
current state-adopted content standards are addressed during recruitment. Trained North
Carolina educators also review items and suggest improvements, if necessary. The use of
classroom teachers from across the state ensures that instructional validity is maintained.
•
If a teacher is interested in training to become an item writer or reviewer for the North
Carolina Testing Program, he/she can
visit https://center.ncsu.edu/nc/x_courseNav/index.php?id=21 and take the appropriate
subject area “A” level Content Standards Overview course and the “B” level Test
Development Basics course in the Moodle system. Once the online training courses are
completed, the teacher will be directed to go to an online interest form. Teachers who
submit interest forms will be contacted when item writing or reviewing is needed in their
subject area.
Test Structure and Test Administration Time
• The ELA/reading grade 6 interim assessments will contain approximately 20 items each.
•
Students are allowed up to 90 minutes to answer all items.
•
All interim assessments will consist of four-response-option multiple-choice items.
•
Interim assessments 2 and 3 will each include a constructed response item. The
constructed response item will be short answer and can typically be answered in a
paragraph or less. Students will write their responses on the lines provided on the answer
sheet. Students must not write beyond the end of the lines or in the margins. Words
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written in the margins or unlined areas of the answer sheet will not be scored. Students
must not add more lines to the answer sheet. Words written on extra lines will not be
scored. Scorers only review for the specific criteria as stated in the item. Additional
information not required in the answer will not increase the student’s score.
Prioritization of Standards
• The NCDPI invited teachers to collaborate and develop recommendations for a
prioritization of the standards indicating the relative importance of each standard, the
anticipated instructional time, and the appropriateness of the standard for multiple-choice
and constructed response item formats.
•
Interim assessments are aligned to the NC Standard Course of Study (NCSCS) for
English Language Arts, adopted by the North Carolina State Board of Education in June
2010.
•
Some standards not designated with tested items may be a prerequisite standard or may
be tested within the context of another standard.
•
The NCSCS may be reviewed by visiting the NCDPI K-12 English Language Arts wiki
site at http://elaccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Common+Core+State+Standards.
•
Some content standards in the NCSCS are not directly assessed because either (1) the
standard cannot be appropriately assessed during a limited time assessment using
multiple-choice and/or constructed response items or (2) the standard is better assessed
through another, more inclusive standard.
•
The following standards are assessed on each ELA/reading interim assessment.
o RL.1, RL.2, RL.3, RL.4, RL.5, L.4a, L.5.a
o RI.1, RI.2, RI.3, RI.4, RI.5, RI.6, RI.8
•
All students are expected to be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing
complexity as they progress through a grade. Both quantitative and qualitative measures
are used to determine the complexity of a text. The qualitative measure of text
complexity includes making informed decisions about the difficulty of a text in terms of a
number of factors such as levels of meaning or purpose, structure, language
conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands. The text complexity of the
selections chosen for the proof of concept study will increase throughout the year.
Cognitive Rigor and Item Complexity
Assessment items are designed, developed, and classified to ensure that the cognitive rigor of the
test forms aligns to the cognitive complexity and demands of the NCSCS for English Language
Arts. These items will require students to demonstrate the range of cognitive processes from
recall of information to the application of concepts and skills.
Delivery Mode
All interim assessments will be delivered on paper-and-pencil.
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