Ensuring that the Ohio Career-Technical Education Testing System assessments remain secure is of paramount importance. Test security ensures the fairness and validity of the assessments. Test security is one of the major problems facing test developers and test users (e.g., the federal government, states, school districts, and teachers). Test Security refers to actions that all stakeholders undertake to keep test items “safe” so that test takers can encounter them without narrow preparation and receive a fair test of their knowledge and skill. Narrow preparation means providing only the answer without teaching the broad competency units.
The importance of test security in the testing system stems from several reasons. First, items that are compromised cheapen the interpretations of scores because some individual test-takers have a built-in advantage over others who have a broad knowledge of the competency but lack the specific keyed answer. Second, a lack of test security decreases the chances that program improvement will succeed if used to pinpoint areas of the content standards that require additional instruction or an alternative method of instruction. Third, a lack of test security makes added expense for the Ohio Department of Education and the Center on Education and Training for Employment in the form of more frequent test revisions. Fourth, the expense of the revisions is borne by the test user (ODE) but is eventually passed on to users in the form of test pricing.
All stakeholders of WebXam and the CTE testing system, including state education agency administrators, test proctors, teachers, student test takers, and assessors are responsible for maintaining test security. This includes adhering to the acceptable use policies which each WebXam user agrees to when they first enter the system.
For more information about WebXam’s Test Security policies, please visit our Test Security Rulebook (https://www.webxam.org/Public/TestSecurityRulebook).
Reporting Testing Irregularities or Suspected Cheating
Although WebXam testing policy requires all tests to be administered under secure conditions with strict supervision by a test proctor, misconduct or testing irregularities may occur. Please contact WebXam Support (support@webxam.org) as soon as possible if you observe behavior that is in violation of WebXam’s test security, test administration policies, or test procedures. Include a description of the incident, the login name(s) of the student(s) involved, the test being taken, and the date of testing. Appropriate actions to be taken will be determined on a case-by-case basis.