Abstract
BackgroundLow-stakes tests are becoming increasingly important in international assessments of educational progress, and the validity of these results is essential especially as these results are often used for benchmarking. Test scores in these tests not only mirror students’ ability but also depend on their test-taking effort. One way to obtain more valid scores from participating samples is to identify test-takers with low test-taking effort and to exclude them from further analyses. Self-assessment is a convenient and quick way of measuring test-taking effort. We present the newly developed Test-taking Effort Short Scale (TESS), which comprises three items measuring attainment value/intrinsic value, utility value, and perceived benefits, respectively.MethodsIn a multicenter validation study with N = 1837 medical students sitting a low-stakes progress test we analyzed item and test statistics including construct and external validity.ResultsTESS showed very good psychometric properties. We propose an approach using stanine norms to determine a cutoff value for identifying participants with low test-taking effort.ConclusionWith just three items, TESS is shorter than most established self-assessment scales; it is thus suited for administration after low-stakes progress testing. However, further studies are necessary to establish its suitability for routine usage in assessment outside progress testing.
Highlights
Low-stakes tests are becoming increasingly important in international assessments of educational progress, and the validity of these results is essential especially as these results are often used for benchmarking
As the conclusions drawn from these tests may be far reaching, it is important for faculties and researchers to keep track of test-taking effort and to potentially exclude participants with low test-taking effort from their analyses
We introduced the Test-taking Effort Short Scale (TESS), a short self-assessment scale designed to measure test-taking effort in low-stakes progress testing, in particular
Summary
Low-stakes tests are becoming increasingly important in international assessments of educational progress, and the validity of these results is essential especially as these results are often used for benchmarking. Test scores in these tests mirror students’ ability and depend on their test-taking effort. Test-taking effort Large-scale assessments like the Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (see http://timss.bc.edu), the US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) [1], and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) [2, 3] are used as benchmarks of educational systems and student achievement worldwide. As the conclusions drawn from these tests may be far reaching, it is important for faculties and researchers to keep track of test-taking effort and to potentially exclude participants with low test-taking effort from their analyses
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