For an assessment to produce valuable information about students’ abilities, it needs to be appropriately targeted to uncover what students can do and understand, as well as what they cannot yet do and understand.
So, when a student responds correctly to approximately 50% of questions, the test is well targeted and provides the maximum information about the skills a student is demonstrating, and those they are still developing.
In selecting items for the PAT Adaptive testlets, ACER test developers aim to achieve a balance of item difficulty, curriculum appropriateness and adherence to adaptive test design specifications. Each testlet needs to contain a mix of items at different difficulty levels and will include items mapped against curriculum content descriptors for a variety of year levels. As a result, a primary student, for example, who has demonstrated a high level of achievement will at times see items that link to curriculum content descriptors from secondary year levels.
Related article: Does PAT align to the curriculum?
By including more advanced content, the test can challenge high-achieving students and push them to think critically and apply their knowledge in new ways. This helps in identifying their potential and areas where they can grow further. Restricting such content from appearing would mean that the test would become less adaptive and less appropriately targeted.
PAT Maths Adaptive
PAT Maths Adaptive has been designed to suit a range of abilities at both primary and secondary level. Very high-performing primary students may, at some stages in their test, be challenged with maths questions that ACER has linked to maths curriculum content descriptors above year 6 level. In almost all cases, this content has been designed so it can be reasoned out by primary students who have not been formally taught those skills and ideas. Please note that in the final stage of the test, primary students who have demonstrated an extremely high level of ability in the first and second stages may encounter advanced mathematical topics. Some of these questions may be difficult to answer without formal exposure to the skills or concepts being assessed. While some high-achieving primary students may not be able such questions correctly, their responses to these questions still may be interrogated to identify skills or concepts which can be considered for stretch/extension work.
Assigning a (non-adaptive) PAT Maths 4th Editon test to your highest achieving students will allow you to control the curriculum appropriateness of the content to a greater extent but may limit the difficulty of items presented. When choosing and assigning a linear test, it is important to carefully preview the forms and select one that is likely to generate a mix of correct and incorrect answers.