Test Development Research Studies
Focus Groups with Key Stakeholders
Description
Series of small focus groups with stakeholders (parents, teachers, students, state department of education officials), designed to elicit feedback on how a large-scale assessment of reading could best meet their needs and what diagnostic information would be most helpful to inform instruction.
Outcomes
- Provide for a new reading assessment that meets the needs of all test users.
- Ensure that the assessment produces individual score reports to help parents and teachers understand a student's specific academic needs and inform instruction.
Cognitive Labs
Description
Series of small cognitive labs for students with and without disabilities that will use think-aloud protocols to elicit feedback on new item types and on operational item types that had differential impact for test takers with and without learning disabilities.
Outcomes
Provide useful information from test takers on why some item types tend to perform differently for students with reading-based learning disabilities and how new item types may perform.
Usability of Assistive Reading Technologies
Description
Small study using qualitative research methodology to examine how new and existing reading item types perform when assistive technologies are used.
Outcomes
Provide information to test developers on revising item types to ensure that the intended construct is preserved and new items are universally designed for all students.