EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Grade 8

Alignment of Level 18 TerraNova, Form A*,
to Wisconsin Model Academic Standards

*The TerraNova Assessment Series published by CTB McGraw-Hill is the series used for the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations at grades four, eight, and ten.

On April 20-21, 1998, CTB/McGraw-Hill staff conducted a workshop for the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to match items on TerraNova, Form A, at Levels 14, 18, and 20 to the Model Academic Standards for Grades 4, 8, and 12 respectively. TerraNova is currently administered to Wisconsin students in Grades 4, 8, and 10. The purpose of conducting the match was to determine whether individual TerraNova items assess the Model Academic Standards and the extent to which the Model Academic Standards are addressed by TerraNova items - that is, breadth of coverage. Approximately ten Wisconsin educators participated in the alignment workshop for each of the four content areas assessed by TerraNova: reading/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. CTB facilitated content area groups by providing instructions on the specific tasks to be performed and on documentation procedures. Participants worked in pairs to review a draft match completed by CTB, then presented their findings to the whole group for discussion; groups reached consensus on each item. Test items could be matched to more than one performance standard, and an item was considered to match if it either directly assessed the content of the standard or if it assessed related content.

Major Findings

• At Grade 8, 99 percent of all TerraNova, Form A, items on Level 18 match one or more of the Model Academic Standards.

• In Reading Language Arts, all 64 items (100%) match one or more performance standards.

• All 35 Science items and 41 Mathematics items match one or more performance standards.

• In Social Studies, 34 of 35 (97%) items match at least one performance standard.

At Grade 8 there is a total of 173 performance standards, of which 158 were judged to be appropriate for large-scale, paper-and-pencil kinds of tests. Of the 158 assessable standards, 85 (54%) are measured by items on TerraNova, Form A.

• Of the 12 Reading Language Arts performance standards which are appropriate for large-scale assessment, ten (83%) are addressed by one or more TerraNova items.

• Seventy-one percent of the Mathematics assessable standards (22 of 31) are measured by TerraNova items.

• In Science, 46 percent of the assessable performance standards are tested by TerraNova items. Of the 63 Science performance standards, 56 were determined to be appropriate for large-scale assessments.

• In Social Studies, 27 of 58 (47%) assessable standards are measured by TerraNova items.

A complete copy of the publication titled "Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations: An Alignment Study at Grades 4, 8, and 10" is available for downloading in .pdf format. This publication may be printed and copied by Wisconsin educators and citizens. Other use or reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, requires written approval of CTB/McGraw-Hill, 20 Ryan Ranch Road, Monterey, California 93940-5703

Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations: An Alignment Study at Grade 8

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Last updated on 2/26/2008 10:42:47 AM