| Declining quality of the American public school education has prompted legislators to impose standards-based accountability across the nation, a shift that brought with it high-stakes testing. Further entrenching the ideal of testing for accountability, the No Child Left Behind Act imposed strict assessment guidelines on states, requiring annual testing of all students in grades three through eight. Most states administer norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests in the traditional paper-and-pencil format, which at times is plagued with inefficiencies. The most critical of these inefficiencies is the delay between the time of administration to receipt of test results, which hinders meaningful and timely interpretation. One feature of Internet-based, computerized adaptive tests is their ability to provide instant feedback.;The purpose of this research was to investigate the degree of correlation between the Performance Series Test (PST), a computerized adaptive test marketed by the Scantron Corporation, and the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test in mathematics. This research also investigated whether the PST can predict students' MEAP math scores. This study is significant because it not only investigated an efficient assessment technology that can be used to gauge student progress, but that can also aid in predicting student achievement in a high-stakes assessment. The research model helps educators design individualized instruction months ahead of taking the MEAP.;A non-experimental, exploratory correlational research design was used in this study. Data collection tools included results from the MEAP test taken by 259 fourth-grade and 282 eighth-grade students using paper and pencil, and a computer-adaptive test, the PST. Student achievement scaled scores from the 2003--2004 school year were used, with the researcher obtaining data from an urban school district in southeastern Michigan.;Pearson product-moment correlations between MEAP and PST scores for Grade 4 and Grade 8 were .742 (p<0.001) and .808 (p<0.001) respectively, indicating strong relationships between the two tests. Multiple regression analyses indicated the PST was the prominent predictor of MEAP scores, followed by ethnicity. The other predictor variables, which included gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education, and English-language proficiency, were insignificant predictors of MEAP in the presence of PST scores and ethnicity. The predictive value of PST allows for timely remediation of students who are at risk of failing the MEAP. |
