Monday, April 23, 2012

Standardized test security questioned - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Standardized test security questioned - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:


Standardized test security questioned

Tenth-graders in Florida took the state’s standardized test in reading on a staggered schedule because there weren’t enough computers available for them all to take it at the same time, raising concerns that security of test questions could be compromised, the Miami Herald reported.
Students took the test in reading, which is part of the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT), in groups on a few different days last week. The Herald reported that as 10th grade students began to talk about the test, it became obvious to teachers that different groups were getting the same questions and reading passages, the paper said.
That causes concerns that the security of test questions had been compromised. The paper quoted Gregory Cizek, a test security expert and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as