Coherently Connecting Computer and Information Literacy Classroom and Accountability Assessments

Abstract

Can classroom assessment be improved by providing teachers with tools useful in more coherently connecting formative assessment in the classroom and international accountability assessments? Though formative assessment is widely recognized for its value in improving educational outcomes, teachers’ efforts in putting it to use are plagued with problems that can be addressed and solved, though not without difficulty. Effective implementation of formative assessment and teachers’ capacities for learning from their own and their colleagues’ experiences with it are typically stymied in education by a lack of coherence between classroom and accountability assessments. Over 2,000 students at 118 Hong Kong schools participating in the 2013 International Computer and Information Literacy Study provided responses to 62 assessment items. Applying a probabilistic model implementing Rasch measurement theory, the published ICILS item calibrations were reproduced by the Hong Kong sample (Pearson’s r=0.86; disattenuated, 1.00). Plans for an expanded computer and information literacy item bank supporting connections between classroom and international assessment are described.