Rapid guessing on achievement tests varies across grades, subjects, and teachers¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr?·q3
Currency · newest study 2018 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2021: 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.
q3 i? The prevalence of rapid guessing differed across grades, subjects, and teachers. → Jensen 2018
Evidence¶
Jensen 2018¶
Jensen, N., Rice, A., & Soland, J. (2018). The influence of rapidly guessed item responses on teacher value-added estimates: Implications for policy and practice. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 40(2), 267-284. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373718759600 doi:10.3102/0162373718759600
q3 · i? · associational · r?
The article reports an examination of rapid guessing prevalence on achievement tests, finding "differences in rapid guessing across grades, subjects, and teachers." No effect sizes for these differences are printed in the available text.
"We observed differences in rapid guessing across grades, subjects, and teachers; however, this behavior did not appear to have a substantive effect on teacher value-added estimates."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- The test platform detects rapid guessing in real time and attempts to re-engage disengaged students to protect score validity — related
- Rapid guessing did not appear to substantively affect teacher value-added estimates under the value-added specifications used — related
- Academic disengagement behaviors such as chronic absenteeism and course failures are related to test disengagement behaviors such as rapid guessing — related
- Social-emotional factors, including low academic self-efficacy and self-management, are related to rapid guessing behavior — related
- Rapid-guessing behavior can distort test scores and adversely affect measurement — related
- A meaningful percentage of Grade 8 state summative test events showed rapid guessing, varying by subject: 5.5% in mathematics, 6.7% in ELA, and 3.5% in science — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Identifying rapid guessing is important for the validity of achievement test scores, particularly with low-stakes tests — related
- Rapid-guessing behavior varies by item and is significantly related to item length, item position, and presence of ancillary reading material — related
- Rapid guessing is a validated indicator of disengaged item responding — related
- Repeated rapid guessing across several tests is strongly associated with students' academic self-efficacy and self-management scores — related
- Little was known before this study about students who rapidly guess over the course of several tests — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
rapid-guessing-varies-grade-subject-teacher |
title |
Rapid guessing on achievement tests varies across grades, subjects, and teachers |
description |
Rapid guessing on achievement tests varies across grades, subjects, and teachers |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2018 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
recheck_by |
2021 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — jensen-2018 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.