Purpose
End-of-Course field testing is an important part of psychometric quality assurance. The purpose of field testing is to examine both individual test items and entire test banks. Field testing is a quality-assurance process that helps CETE staff to select better items to create operational test forms. Field test data can also be used to adjust cutoff scores when finalizing operational test forms to 40 items.
Secondary instructors from across Ohio participated in item-writing workshops at CETE at The Ohio State University. Preliminary End-of-Course test banks for selected pathways were created at these workshops. Each fall, previously written items are field tested with students as part of the process for creating final forms of 40 items.
Test Administration
Posttests are administered at no cost to Ohio local-education agencies via WebXam (www.webxam.org), the online assessment delivery system maintained by CETE. Tests are not available in paper-and-pencil format. District personnel, including testing coordinators and others, can help you set up assessments on WebXam.
Availability
You may review the WebXam about the tests web page to see which tests are currently in field testing. To see a list of only the tests that are in field testing you can go here.
NOTE: Field tests will be available until the cutoff date listed on the WebXam calendar so rescoring can be accomplished. Testing deadline extensions are not possible.
Field test forms are available to all students enrolled in the corresponding career-technical education programs. The larger the number of examinees participating in the field test, the more reliable the results; therefore, all teachers and school districts with relevant programs are encouraged to participate. Students should complete End-of-Course tests only if the student is enrolled in the corresponding course and has completed the related coursework related to that course.
Student Scores
Scores for assessments in field testing will be reportable through Information Technology Centers (ITC) to local districts for transmission to EMIS, Ohio’s statewide data-collection system. However, assessment results will be analyzed and scores adjusted before reporting by CETE at the end of the school year.
During the field-testing period, students will only receive a raw score for each EOC test taken. Students will not receive a pass/fail indication for field-tested assessments at the time of testing. Field testing (and only field testing) will end on the cutoff date. At this time, CETE psychometric staff and ODE pathway personnel will analyze the field-test results. Poorly performing items will be dropped, and final test forms of 40 items will be selected. Every student’s test result will then be rescored based on the final set of items chosen. The percentage score may increase or decrease from the raw score shown to the student during field testing. CETE staff will provide final scores with pass/fail indications for all field-tested assessments based on the published timeline on the WebXam Calendar. Districts will be able to run reports on the WebXam website, and field-test results will be included in the end-of-year score output provided to ITCs for reporting purposes.
Assessment Structure
In general, each overall test and bank contains items of two levels of challenge: C1 and C2. Approximately 30 percent of items will be at the C2 level (higher in Bloom’s taxonomy – mainly application, analysis, or evaluation). The remaining items are at the C1 level (knowledge and comprehension). In addition, approximately 40 percent of items for each assessment are scenario based. A scenario is a short situation, story, or passage of text that provides information needed to answer several associated items. Graphics (tables, charts, figures, and maps) may be included as well to provide information needed to answer the test item.
Each test corresponds to a course as defined by the Ohio Department of Education. Specific information regarding each individual pathway test—forms to administer, tests included in each pathway assessment, and number of items in each form—follows in the next section. To find links to the competencies in the Ohio Career Field Technical Content Standards covered by each test, go to the WebXam About the Tests page at https://www.webxam.org/public/AboutTheTests.
Students are expected to test for each course in which they are enrolled. They are not required to take all End-of-Course tests available for the entire program. Because programs vary in length and the minimum number of courses approved for a program is four, concentrators cannot take less than 3 tests without getting a zero score counted for the missing tests when calculating the overall score.