New PAIS Adaptive assessments providing culturally diverse test content for international schools
Feature 4 Oct 2024 5 minute readFollowing the launch of the Progressive Achievement for International Schools (PAIS) Adaptive assessments earlier in 2024, Dr Jarrod Hingston and Kimberley Veart held a webinar exploring ACER’s philosophy and approach behind the assessment. The discussion included an explanation of adaptive testing and the assessment itself.
The purpose of PAIS Adaptive
PAIS Adaptive provides international schools with the same opportunity that Australian schools have taken up with PAT Adaptive but tailored for an international school context. While the assessment is ‘curriculum agnostic’, it is built upon research-based international frameworks. The culturally diverse content does not contain assumed knowledge that may be country or region specific, and is appropriate for students from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking backgrounds. All assessment material has been rigorously trialled and is tailored to meet the learning needs and context of international schools.
Learning growth is often inaccurately spoken about in terms of changes in percentile or how a student has performed against a cohort. A good assessment should show where a student is, at that particular point in time, and measure them against a defined continuum of learning in a particular learning area. PAIS Adaptive assessments allow teachers to track the progress of students against that continuum at any point in the year, and understand what learning growth actually looks like and what has been achieved.
What is adaptive testing?
PAIS Adaptive provides personalised pathways for students sitting the assessment. Each student presented an initial group of test items (a testlet). After completing the initial testlet, students are directed to a higher or lower difficulty testlet, based on their performance. This is then repeated throughout the course of the assessment. You can read more about how it works here.
An illustration of pathways through an adaptive test.
Dr Hingston and Ms Veart emphasised the conscious intention to adapt the pathway for students after every testlet, rather than every question. In each testlet, different strands across the learning area are included to ensure it accurately reflects the construct.
‘Students aren’t being moved to the next question just based on answering one question previous; there's a balance within each testlet that should set them on the right pathway,’ said Ms Veart.
The testlet pathways enable content balance and take away the need for teachers to manage difficulty levels for their students.
‘This also results in a lot more student engagement and accurate results because they're not sitting a test that's continually too hard or too easy,’ Ms Veart explained.
What students see
The test has a progress bar that initially shows the 10 items in the first testlet, which subsequently expands to 20 and then 30 as they complete each testlet. The presence of the progress bar allows students to go back and revise their answers, an important, and very normal, part of test-taking.
When to test?
Many schools use adaptive assessments at the beginning of the year to see where a new student is starting from, and re-test at the end of the year. Some schools also test throughout the year for diagnostic purposes. For tracking progress, testing at least 9 to 12 months apart is ideal and will provide a more accurate picture of your students’ learning growth.
PAIS Adaptive learning areas
Currently PAIS Adaptive is available for 2 learning areas, reading and mathematics. The assessment is designed for use across years 3 to 10 and aims to assess content the way it is taught in most curricula. Students are automatically assigned one of 8 entry levels. A student doing their first PAIS Adaptive assessment will be assigned an entry level based on their grade. In subsequent sittings, they will be assigned an entry level based on their previous scale score. However, teachers can manually modify the entry level.
| PAIS Adaptive: Mathematics | PAIS Adaptive: Reading |
| Assessed strands: Number and Algebra; Measurement and Geometry; Space and Shape; Chance and Data | Assessed strands: Retrieving; Interpret Implicit; Interpret Explicit; Reflect |
| Multiple choice and some interactive questions | Multiple choice and complex multiple choice |
| Administered in 40 mins (guidance only) | Administered in 45 mins (guidance only) |
| Students will see between 30–45 test items over 3 testlets | Students will see between 30–45 test items over 3 testlets |
ACER Data Explorer
PAIS Adaptive comes with the ACER Data Explorer, providing teachers with immediate and relevant feedback about a student’s progress. Once an assessment is completed, teachers can instantly access the results, which are presented in a format that provides actionable information about the student’s strengths and weaknesses. Reporting supports a focus on individual students and provides teachers with the data for evidence-based decision-making in classrooms.
Learn more
Watch the complete webinar, or learn more about PAIS Adaptive and request a free 30-day trial.