Under No Child Left Behind the federal government requires each state to implement a comprehensive student testing program in elementary, middle and high school as part of each state?s accountability program. As a result most state governments have implemented a standard set of accountability tests that all students in a particular state take as part of the state?s testing regime. This design, in many ways, has limited local choices on curriculum and assessment providers that schools can choose. Our work aims to bridge this gap by identifying equivalency scores between Mississippi?s state level tests for high school grades and two curriculum providers (ACT QualityCore & Cambridge IGCSE).
In order to set equivalency scores between the state-mandated tests and the external curriculum providers we propose a two pronged approach. First, we propose to equate scores between the two sets of tests. General requirements for equating require equal constructs, equal reliability, symmetry, equity (indifference to use of either test), and population invariance. Second, we propose using matched groups of students to obtain prediction proficiency levels on the Mississippi state level end-of-course tests for various competency levels on both the Cambridge and ACT QualityCore end-of-course examinations. As a result of this work, high schools in Mississippi will have the option to test students with the Mississippi state end-of-course examinations or those from ACT QualityCore or Cambridge IGCSE.
Funding:
National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE)
Funding Period:
06/01/2013 to 12/31/2013