OK, here’s version 1.0 of Goodine’s Guidelines for Gaining Assessment Literacy. It’s a work in progress.
- An English test is not a scholastic aptitude test. It has limited power to predict how a student will fare at your institution. If you want to know about the scholastic potential of an applicant, make them take a test designed for that purpose.
- Remember that the items on tests, even the most traditional ones, barely simulate real-world tasks. Resemblances to what students will do on campus are superficial at best. This is not a flaw; it is simply something worth knowing.
- Quite a few of your incoming students will have cheated on their English test. An even greater number will have gamed the test and received a higher score than they probably deserve. You should figure out what to do about this each time a new class of students arrives. Meanwhile, you might consider using your influence to pressure test companies to take measures to reduce cheating (they will like this request) and to reduce gaming (they will not like this request).
- Despite everything, it is still critically important that students be able to write well. The best way to understand what an applicant’s writing score means is to look at what they actually wrote on test day. Some test makers provide such samples on score reports. Others do not. If a test maker does not, they should be pressured to do so. Looking at benchmark samples supplied by the test maker isn’t enough. After you’ve looked at 100 scored responses, you’ll have reached a whole new level of assessment literacy.
- Same goes for speaking, I guess.
- Once you understand what a given score means, ask yourself “can we fix the weaknesses of students at this level in an 8-week EAP program?” If not, then what?
- Remember that test companies (even non-profits) are self-serving. Examine their research with a jaundiced eye.
- The positive washback of test preparation is extremely limited. Sometimes it is negative. In any case, the time students spend preparing for a test could be better spent building more robust language skills.
- The best way to gain assessment literacy is to take the tests that are accepted by your institution. This should be done in real conditions and will consume both money and time. Don’t take a practice test; it isn’t the same.