Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) Life & Work Series Reading & Listening

Floyd, Kurdi, & Modica

Description:

Test Purpose

Standardized - Criterion-Referenced - Discrete-Point Formative & Summative - Objective - Indirect Can be used as: Placement - Progress - Achievement Test Test-Takers Include:
English as a Second Language English Language Learners Vocational ESL Adult Basic Education Adult Secondary Education General Education Development

Assesses:
Reading & Listening Skills

Uses:
For teachers/administrators to identify the literacy needs preand post-instruction of learners. Monitoring the student progress throughout literacy levels. Can be used for course placement into a specific level or baseline for benchmarking

Description:

Test Content

CASAS assessments consist of a pre-test, course instruction and post-test No strict timing, but about an hour for each assessment Test can be paper/pencil or computer based Selected response items are multiple choice On Reading tests, test takers read short passages, graphs, maps, charts, signs, pictures etc. and answer multiple choice questions On Listening tests, test takers listen to a short dialogue or discussion and might see multiple pictures that corresdpond to multiple choice answers

Description: Scoring/Rating Procedure

How is the test scored?
eTests are scored via computer Paper-and-pencil tests scored manually

What rating procedure takes place?

The number of correct items is converted to a scaled score which determines placement.

Reporting/Interpreting results:
Teachers/administrators have the option to use TOPSpro assessment software that tracks student progress over the course and throughout their level progression. Item tasks assess certain competency abilities and there is a scoring rubric that shows strengths and weaknesses of these competencies of the learner. With eTests, immediate feedback to learner and teacher/administrator is given pertaining to level and/or placement. Manual scoring immediate for T/A, & they report results to student.

Life & Work Reading Form 83

-obtained from Olsen, 2011

Evaluation:

Reliability Evidence

Test administration reliability

Parallel forms reliability

Internal consistency reliability (KR-20)

Descriptive statistics for each series are presented Reading Life Skills

Form # 27 28 31 32 32X 33 34 34 X 35 36 37 38

N 18,369 12,264 28,996 17,259 2,447 29,500 27,673 27,721 27,605 21,101 7,363 4,876

# of Items 30 30 24 24 27 32 32 35 38 38 40 40

Mean Raw Score 23.38 24.51 16.96 15.23 15.84 18.68 19.78 22.22 20.93 21.05 17.22 18.52

Standard Deviation 6.93 6.28 6.20 6.49 6.86 8.04 7.70 7.05 8.11 7.74 9.06 9.19

Mean P-Value .779 .817 .706 .635 .587 .584 .618 .635 .551 .554 .431 .463

Mean Point Biserial .850 .875 .598 .594 .534 .535 .519 .614 .458 .441 .466 .474

KR-20 .931 .925 .919 .918 .902 .918 .911 .885 .897 .886 .908 .912

Note: These numbers were run based on data from 1996 through 2000. The initial item analyses were run for all items with sample sizes larger than 300

Descriptive Statistics for the Life Skills Reading Series

Descriptive statistics for each series are presented-Listening Life Skills

# of Items 34 34 30 30 25 25 Raw Score Mean 19.99 20.78 16.69 16.44 13.18 13.68 Standard Deviation 8.80 8.16 7.26 6.66 5.76 5.52 Mean PValue .588 .611 .556 .548 .527 .547 Mean Point Biserial .544 .519 .501 .458 .474 .453

Form # 51 52 53 54 55 56

N 8,915 5,716 5,655 4,324 3,273 2,616

KR-20 .927 .916 .896 .870 .855 .838

Note: The 51L and 52L tests appear in both the ECS and Life Skills series * Note: These numbers were run based on data from 1996 through 2000. Initial item analyses were run for all items with sample sizes larger than 300

Evaluation:

Validity Evidence

Criterion-related validity

Construct validity

Content-related validity

Critique
All discuss our critiques

Sample Test Item: LWS Reading Skills