The multiple-choice component of the revised ELA placement test strongly measured overall ELA performance, but few items strongly measured the three specific ELA domains¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2029: tool and model accuracy changes quickly
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Of the 75 items on the multiple-choice component, 61 percent (46 items) showed strong contributions to measuring overall ELA performance, while only 16 percent of vocabulary, 8 percent of language use, and 12 percent of sentence meaning items strongly measured their domains. → Shannon 2026
Evidence¶
Shannon 2026¶
Shannon, L., Gruber, J., Rentz, B., Vila, C., Erichsen, K., & Nastasi, J. (2026). Examining the English language arts course placement system at the College of the Marshall Islands (REL 2026–006). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific. https://ies.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/report/descriptive-study/examining-english-language-arts-course-placement-system-college-marshall-islands
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Bifactor item response theory analysis of placement test item responses (N = 1,098 test takers), examining item loadings against thresholds of 0.6 for overall and 0.3 for domain measurement. The report states "61 percent (46 items) demonstrated strong contributions to measuring ELA performance," while few domain items did.
"Of the 75 total items on the test, 61 percent (46 items) demonstrated strong contributions to measuring ELA performance. However, few items made strong contributions to measuring performance on each of the three ELA test domains: vocabulary, language use, and sentence meaning."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Multiple-choice state tests are prone to ceiling and floor effects and do not measure higher-order skills well — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
- The ELA placement test was most precise for students whose scores would place them into developmental courses, with precision declining above the 40th percentile — related
- The multiple-choice placement test component and high school GPA similarly predicted passing credit-bearing ELA courses, while the writing component did not predict any outcomes — related
- Open response format is associated with higher Alpha than multiple choice in knowledge tests — related
- State tests under NCLB measured little higher-order thinking, with only 2 percent of math items qualifying — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
cmi-ela-test-strong-overall-weak-domain-measurement |
title |
The multiple-choice component of the revised ELA placement test strongly measured overall ELA performance, but few items strongly measured the three specific ELA domains |
description |
The multiple-choice component of the revised ELA placement test strongly measured overall ELA performance, but few items strongly measured the three specific ELA domains |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2026 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
recheck_by |
2029 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — shannon-2026 |
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