North Carolina Linking Study: A Study of the Alignment of the NWEA RIT Scale with the North Carolina State End of Grade (EOG) Testing Program
Author: Northwest Evaluation Association
Date: 2014-03-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Alignment (Education),Testing Programs,Equated Scores,Standard Setting,State Standards,Grades (Scholastic),Cutting Scores,Probability,Mathematics Tests,Reading Tests,Correlation,Predictive Measurement,Predictive Validity,Academic Standards,Evaluation Methods,Evaluation Criteria,Educational Policy,Educational Change,Academic Achievement,Achievement Rating

Recently, the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a study to connect the scale of the North Carolina State End of Grade (EOG) Testing Program used for North Carolina's mathematics and reading assessments with NWEA's Rausch Interval Unit (RIT) scale. Information from the state assessments was used in a study to establish performance-level scores on the RIT scale that would indicate a good chance of success on these tests. To perform the analysis, we linked together state test and NWEA test results for a sample of 18,730 North Carolina students who completed both exams in the spring of 2013, the term in which the EOG is administered. For the spring season (labeled &quot;current season&quot;), an Equipercentile method was used to estimate the RIT score equivalent to each state performance level. For fall (labeled &quot;prior season&quot;), we determined the percentage of the population within the selected study group that performed at each level on the state test and found the equivalent percentile ranges within the NWEA dataset to estimate the cut scores. For example, if 40% of the study group population in grade 3 mathematics performed below the proficient level on the state test, we would find the RIT score that would be equivalent to the 40th percentile for the study population (this would not be the same as the 40th percentile in the NWEA norms). This RIT score would be the estimated point on the NWEA RIT scale that would be equivalent to the minimum score for proficiency on the state test. Documentation about this method can be found on our website. Table Sets 1 and 2 show the best estimate of the minimum RIT equivalent to each state performance level for same-season (spring) and prior-season (fall) RIT scores. These tables can be used to identify students who may need additional help to perform well on these tests. Table Sets 3 and 4 show the estimated probability of a student receiving a proficient score on the state assessment, based on that student's RIT score. These tables can be used to assist in identifying students who are not likely to pass these assessments, thereby increasing the probability that intervention strategies will be planned and implemented. These tables can also be useful for identifying target RIT-score objectives likely to correspond to successful or &quot;proficient&quot; performance on the state test. Table 5 shows the correlation coefficients between Measured Academic Performance (MAP) and the state test in each grade. These statistics show the degree to which MAP and the state test are linearly related, with values at or near 1.0 suggesting a perfect linear relationship, and values near 0.0 indicating no linear relationship. Table 6 shows the percentages of students at each grade and within each subject whose status on the state test (i.e., whether or not the student &quot;met standards&quot;) was accurately predicted by their MAP performance and using the estimated cut scores within the current study. This table can be used to understand the predictive validity of MAP with respect to the EOG.