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The mean, the variance, and the standard deviation

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The mean, the variance, and the standard deviation

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Parenting Articles, Worksheets, & Handy Resources | GreatSchools

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GreatSchools is a free, mobile-friendly nonprofit parenting site devoted to helping parents guide their children to success in and out of the classroom.

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Glossary of testing, measurement, and Statistical Terms

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Glossary of testing, measurement, and Statistical Terms

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Online practice reading tests

Introduction

Most states have, or are developing, tests to assess their students' proficiency in state frameworks of curriculum. Many of these states are including students with limited English proficiency in this assessment process, but a significant number of LEP students have difficulty passing these standardized tests. In this website, Longman is pleased to provide additional practice for LEP students by offering sample standardized reading tests for grades 1 to 8. The reading tests provided here are a combination of multiple choice, short-answer, and long-answer questions. The short-answer and long-answer questions are designed to have students process the information in the passage, analyze it, and organize it for the answer. In this way, these practice questions test students' analytical abilities, not just comprehension.

Multiple-Choice Questions
The multiple-choice questions have four possible answers labeled A, B, C, D or F, G, H, I. The students will choose one answer per question. Each question correctly answered is given one point.

Short-Answer Questions

Introduction
Using This Test Prep Site
How to Score the Test Practice Reading Test
Tips for Students Taking a Reading Test

The short-answer questions have a "Read, Think, and Explain" symbol next to them. Students should spend about three to five minutes answering each short-answer question on the lines provided. Each question answered correctly is given up to two points; partial credit is given. There can be some variation in the answers.

Long-Answer Questions

The long-answer questions have a "Read, Think, and Explain" symbol with more lines next to them. Students should spend about seven to ten minutes answering each long-answer question on the lines provided. Each question correctly answered is given up to four points and partial credit is given. There can be some variation in the answers.

This site has a practice test for each grade. Each test has a contents page, two reading passages, and question and answer sections. Scoring Using This Test Prep Site

The Practice Reading Tests in this book are scored on a point system that differs slightly by grade level. Grades 1 and 2 have fewer questions and no short- or long-answer questions. Grade 1 is based on a scoring rage of 0-6 points. Grade 2 is based on a scoring range of 0-12 points. Grades 3 through 8 are based on a scoring range of 0-22 points.
How to Score the Practice Reading Test
Multiple-Choice Questions
Each multiple-choice question is worth 1 point.

Read, Think, and Explain

Short-Answer Questions
Short-answer "Read, Think, and Explain" questions are worth up to two points. There may be more than one acceptable answer for a short-answer question. (Sample answers are given for each question.) Partial credit can be given for answers that are correct, but incomplete.

2 points The answer shows that the student understands what the question is asking. The response is both accurate and complete. The student has supported the answer with information and/or examples from the passage, as asked for in the question. The answer must be based on the correct passage.

1 point The answer shows that the student understood or responded to only part of what the question asked. The information in the answer may be correct and based on the passage, but may not be clearly written, or exact enough. More supporting information and/or examples may be needed, as asked for in the question.

0 points The answer is incorrect or not based upon the passage, or the student gives no response.

Long-Answer Questions
Long-answer "Read, Think, and Explain" questions are worth up to four points. There may be more than one acceptable answer for a long-answer question. (Sample answers are given for each question.) Partial credit can be given for answers that are correct, but incomplete.

4 points The answer shows that the student has a thorough understanding of what the question asks. The response is both accurate and complete. The student has supported the answer with information and/or examples from the passage, as asked for in the question. The answer must be based on the correct passage.

3 points The answer shows that the student has a complete understanding of what the question asks. The information in the answer is correct, but more supporting information and/or examples based on the passage are needed.

2 points The answer shows that the student understood or responded to only part of what the question asked. The information in the answer may be correct and based on the passage, but may not be clearly written, or exact enough. More supporting information and/or examples may be needed.

1 point The answer shows that the student has little understanding of what the question has asked. The answer may be incomplete, may have several mistakes or inaccuracies, and may not fulfill the task required by the question.

0 points The answer is incorrect or not based upon the passage, or the student gives no response.

In this site, the questions and multiple choice sections follow both reading selections. When students finish reading the selection and are ready to answer the questions, they click on the link "Now proceed to the Answer Section below" which takes them directly to the Answer Section. When students are in the Answer Section, they can click on the icon to the right of each question to return to the text for checking information (or they can scroll back up to the text).

To answer multiple choice questions, students click on the button next to their answer choice. For the short-answer and long-answer questions, students can key their answer directly into the essay box provided under the question.

When a student has completed the sample test, he or she can click on the "Submit" button. This will produce a screen showing the student's answers (multiple choice answers and the written answers), which can then be printed and given to the teacher for grading.

The Answer Key for all grades is available from your Pearson Education sales representative.

Practice Reading

This practice reading test will help you get to know the kinds of questions on an actual statewide reading test. This practice test has a Practice Reading Section and Questions. Each Reading Section has two reading passages for which there are a total of 16 comprehension questions. You should answer all the questions in about 30-45 minutes. Your teacher can explain any question in the test that you don't understand. After you finish taking the test, your teacher can review the answers with you.

Tips for Students Taking a Reading Test

Read these tips to help you when you take a reading test. Think of these tips as you take the practice reading test.

There are two kinds of questions in the FCAT: multiple-choice and "Read, Think, and Explain" questions.

Take 5 minutes to write an answer for the short "Read, Think, and Explain" questions. Take 10 minutes to answer the long ones.

Be sure to read all directions carefully. If you do not understand directions, ask your teacher for help.

It is normal to be nervous when you take a test. Try to relax and think about the readings.

Read the whole passage once before you answer any of the questions.

You are allowed to go back and read the passages as many times as you want to. Read them carefully.

Be careful not to leave marks around the answer bubbles. Try to fill them in neatly.

When you answer the "Read, Think, and Explain" questions, think and organize what you want to say before writing down your ideas.

Write your short and long answers neatly so that anyone can read them.

After you read the passage, first answer the questions you know. Skip the ones that are too hard and go back later.

Do not worry if you do not know the answers to questions. Keep going! Partial credit is given for "Read, Think, and Explain" questions, so write whatever you know.

If there is time, go back and make sure that you are giving the best possible answer for each question.

Online practice reading tests

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Online practice reading tests Introduction Most states have, or are developing, tests to assess their students' proficiency in state frameworks of curriculum. Many of these states are including students with limited English proficiency in this assessment process, but a significant number of LEP students have difficulty passing these standardized tests.

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Preparing and Evaluating Essay Test Questions

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Preparing and Evaluating Essay Test Questions

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It's easy to estimate the difficulty of your content: simply run the text through a readability formula. The resulting number is the reading level, usually stated as a grade level that corresponds to the number of years of formal education that are required to understand the text.

There are many different readability formulas, but most people use Flesch-Kincaid simply because it's built into Microsoft Word (In some Word versions, it can be found under Tools > Spelling and Grammar panel > Options: Grammar: Show readability statistics). For example, Flesch-Kincaid rates this article at an 11th-grade reading level, meaning that it can be read by high-school seniors - people who've already completed 11 years of education.

Unless you're a readability expert, the differences between formulas don't matter much, so just use whatever is close at hand. When we assess a website's copy, it doesn't matter whether it computes at, say, 11.3 or 11.6. In either case, that's a high-school reading level, meaning that it's too difficult for a mainstream site but acceptable for a site targeting business professionals. (When targeting a broad consumer audience, you should write at an 8th-grade reading level.)

Readability vs. Comprehension

Readability rates the text's complexity in terms of words and grammar, but we're actually more interested in the text's difficulty in terms of reader comprehension of the content. Sad to say, no formula can measure whether users understand your site.

Take, for example, the following two sentences:

1. He waved his hands.

2. He waived his rights.

Both score well in readability formulas: simple words, short sentences. But whereas everybody understands what the first sentence describes, you might need a law degree to fully comprehend the implications of the second sentence.

(This hands/rights example comes from the paper by Singh et al. discussed in my main column.)

In addition to pure literacy skills, comprehension depends on a mix of IQ, education, and background knowledge. Thus, to measure comprehension, you must test with real users from your target audience.

Cloze Test Procedure

The Cloze test is a common empirical comprehension test. It works as follows:

1. Replace every Nth word in the text with blanks. A typical test uses N = 6, but you can make the test easier by using a higher N value.

2. Ask your test participants to read the modified text and fill in the blanks with their best guesses as to the missing words. Each person should work alone.

3. The score is the percentage of correctly guessed words. Because you're testing comprehension rather than spelling skills, synonyms and misspellings are allowed.

If users get 60% or more right on average, you can assume the text is reasonably comprehensible for the specified user profile employed to recruit test participants. There's a clear difference between readability scores and comprehension scores:

Readability is a property of the text itself and predicts the education level typically needed for people to read the content without undue difficulty.

Comprehension is a combined property of the text and a specific user segment and indicates whether this target audience actually understands the material's meaning.

Here's an example, using a paragraph from Facebook's privacy policy:

Site activity information. We keep {1}______ of some of the actions {2}______ take on Facebook, such as {3}______ connections (including joining a group {4}______ adding a friend), creating a {5}______ album, sending a gift, poking {6}______ user, indicating you "like" a {7}______, attending an event, or connecting {8}______ an application. In some cases {9}______ are also taking an action {10}______ you provide information or content {11}______ us. For example, if you {12}______ a video, in addition to {13}______ the actual content you uploaded, {14}______ might log the fact that {15}______ shared it.

(Solution at the bottom of this page.)

The full text - before inserting the blanks - scored at a 14 th -grade reading level, corresponding to having completed 2 years of university. Thus, if you're a typical smart Alertbox reader, you can probably understand the paragraph and complete the Cloze test. Still, this is a higher reading level than what's required for much of the younger Facebook audience. Most teenage users need far easier text, and even college students prefer non-college level text when they're online - leisure sites shouldn't feel like textbooks.

Solution to Sample Cloze Test

Don't peek, if you want a go at solving the Cloze test on your own.

Here are the missing words from the sample paragraph:

Did you get at least 9 of these right (corresponding to 60%)? If so, you can probably comprehend the full text fairly easily. If you got a lower score, that doesn't prove that you're stupid or that the text is densely written. The problem is likely to be a lack of contextual knowledge of Facebook. For example, the word "poking" is generally easy enough to understand, but its meaning in the Facebook privacy policy context is completely incomprehensible unless you're a user. (Which is okay, because any given text needs to be comprehensible only to the target audience.)

Read more in the separate article Legibility, Readability, and Comprehension: Making Users Read Your Words.

Full Report

Full eyetracking report on how people read on the web is available for download.

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It's easy to estimate the difficulty of your content: simply run the text through a readability formula. The resulting number is the reading level, usually stated as a grade level that corresponds to the number of years of formal education that are required to understand the text.

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Types of Scoring | Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Writing

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Professional development modules for foreign language instruction at the high-school and college levels.

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Parallel forms reliability is a measure of reliability obtained by administering different versions of an assessment tool (both versions must contain items that probe the same construct, skill, knowledge base, etc.) to the same group of individuals. The scores from the two versions can then be correlated in order to evaluate the consistency of results across alternate versions.

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home Ability Achievement test Acquisition Administrability Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Analytic Scoring aptitude test Assessment Background Knowledge Backwash Bias C-Test Cloze Common European Framework of Reference Communicative Language Ability Content validity Criterion-related Validity criterion-referenced testing Diagnostic Test Digital Divide Direct testing Discrete point testing Face Validity Gap Fill Foreign Language

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How to prepare for Aptitude tests, Aptitude test questions examples and important information offered by Australian test developers to ensure you are fully prepared for your aptitude tests (abstract reasoning, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, logical reasoning tests)