Multiple-choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment Refinement: Achieving Better Discrimination via Experimental Item Types and Adaptive Testing

Award Period: -
Award Amount
$1,399,760
Award Number
#R305A190393
Funding Source
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Education Research Grants, , CFDA No. 84305A, R305A190393
Project Link
Multiple-choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment Refinement: Achieving Better Discrimination via Experimental Item Types and Adaptive Testing
Principal Investigator
Gina Biancarosa Ed.D.
Co-Principal Investigator
Patrick Kennedy Ph.D.

Description

This project will develop and refine a computer-adaptive version of MOCCA (Multiple-choice Online Cloze Comprehension Assessment), an existing reading comprehension measure for third- through fifth-grade readers. MOCCA helps distinguish between students who make one of two common comprehension errors. Students with weak comprehension skills tend either to paraphrase (rephrase prior information from the text but do not generate missing information) or to make lateral connections (make an elaborative inference or a personal association). Although the current version helps identify between these patterns of errors, MOCCA can be improved to better meet the needs of students and teachers. By expanding the item bank and making MOCCA computer-adaptive, MOCCA will help teachers gather both formative and summative information about students and reduce test-taking time and burden.