Description of Iowa Test of Educational Development Tests, Levels 15-17/18 (Grades
9-12)
The descriptions on this page are brief summaries of the content and skills measured
by each test across the three test levels.
Vocabulary
This is a test of general vocabulary development. The words tested represent a cross
section of vocabulary encountered in general communication: reading, writing, and
listening. Technical words and specialized vocabulary have not been included. In
order to avoid ambiguity and possible misinterpretation, words are presented in
the context of short phrases or sentences. The student is asked to choose, from
among five alternative words or phrases, the one closest in meaning to the tested
word. The context does not provide "clues"; each of the answer choices is plausible
within the context provided for the word.
Reading Comprehension
This test provides information about the kinds of comprehension skills students
are expected to continue to develop as they proceed through high school -- skills
they will use in reading texts across the curriculum, in engaging with literature,
in reading and thinking about magazine and newspaper articles in and outside of
school, and in extracting and evaluating ideas from a variety of sources in research
projects and extracurricular reading. The passages comprising the Reading Test are
all taken from previously published materials. Each test level has five passages:
a fiction or narrative passage, an article about a social studies topic and one
about a science topic; another nonfiction passage which may be from a biography
or memoir, from an essay, or from the general interest domain; and a poem. The prose
passages range in length from 440 to 650 words. Over the three levels of the test
there are a total of eleven passages, which represent a diverse assortment of well-regarded
authors writing in a variety of styles and for a variety of purposes.
The questions associated with each passage require students to demonstrate understanding
at each of the three process levels usually associated with reading comprehension:
literal, or factual understanding, inference and interpretation, and analysis and
generalization. By far the greatest emphasis is on questions that address the higher-level
objectives of inferring, analyzing, and generalizing, often described as critical
thinking skills. Approximately 60% of the questions at Level 15 are classified in
these categories, while 70% of those at Level 17/18 measure these objectives.
Language: Revising Written Materials
This test provides information about the student's skills in recognizing correct
and effective use of standard American English in writing. In the context of a variety
of written materials, the test asks students to make revision choices concerning
focus, organization, diction and clarity, sentence structure, usage, mechanics,
and spelling -- much as they do in the editing of near-final drafts of their own
writing.
All test questions are based on four relatively long, complete texts (ranging from
125 to 450 words) that are patterned after student writing in content and style.
These texts -- in the form of letters, essays, personal accounts, and reports written
for various courses -- are presented as drafts in which certain portions have been
underlined to indicate a possible need for revision. The corresponding questions
pose alternatives that may correct or improve the underlined portions. In some cases,
there is a clear-cut error in mechanics or usage, sometimes the consideration is
one of fluency or clarity, and occasionally it is the appropriateness of the content
for the task that is at issue.
Spelling
Each of the three levels of the ITED Spelling Test -- Level 15, 16, and 17/18 --
is a 10-minute, 30-question test. Each question presents four words, one of which
may be misspelled, and a fifth option, No mistakes, allowing students to
indicate that they believe all four words are spelled correctly. The fact that there
is a No mistakes answer choice forces students to examine the spelling of
each word on the test. Thus, in effect, each level of the spelling test evaluates
student' knowledge of the correct spelling of 120 words.
Mathematics: Concepts and Problem Solving
The content and processes measured by this test closely follow the standards suggested
by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in its publication, Principles
and Standards for School Mathematics. Just as the focus of the NCTM Principles
and Standards is on fundamental concepts and reasoning skills, the primary
intent of the test is to measure the student's ability to solve quantitative problems.
The questions in this test present practical problems that require basic arithmetic
and measurement, estimation, data interpretation, and logical thinking. The problems
are based on realistic situations. A few questions test more abstract concepts such
as precision of measurement, probability, and exponents. The test's emphasis on
probability and statistics is consistent with the special emphasis given these topics
in the Standards.
The primary objective of this test is to measure students' abilities to use appropriate
mathematical reasoning, not to test computational facility under pressure. To this
end, the number of items requiring computation is minimal. In each level of the
test, approximately 15 items require computation. Of these, most involve round numbers
or single-digit numbers. In addition, a number of the questions require students
to analyze a problem and select the sequence of mathematics steps, or "set-up,"
that, if carried out, would yield the correct solution; the computation itself is
not required.
Computation
This test is provided to enable each school system to tailor the selection of tests
to the goals of its mathematics curriculum. In school systems which de-emphasize
computation in the curriculum, the Mathematics: Concepts and Problem Solving test
provides information to help evaluate performance and growth in mathematics. For
school systems which include computational skills as part of their curriculum, the
two tests in combination may provide a more complete profile of development within
the mathematics program.
The questions included in this test were selected to represent the skills that are
most directly related to the computational manipulations needed throughout the secondary
school mathematics curriculum. Thus, the computation test includes not only questions
that measure the ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, fractions,
and percents, but also questions that measure the ability to manipulate variables
and to evaluate expressions with exponents or with square roots.
Analysis of Social Studies Materials
This test provides evidence of the student's ability to analyze and evaluate various
kinds of social studies information. The test passages and questions use materials
from a variety of content areas: history, political science, psychology, sociology,
anthropology, geography, and economics. While each question has as its context one
or more of the content areas, the answers to the questions, for the most part, do
not depend on recall of specific facts learned in such courses. Primary documents,
posters, cartoons, timelines, maps, graphs, tables, charts, and reading passages
are used to present information to students. The skills measured by the majority
of questions are probably reinforced in a variety of social studies classes.
Analysis of Science Materials
This test provides information about students' abilities to interpret and evaluate
information in the sciences, to recognize basic principles of scientific inquiry
and measurement, and to analyze experimental procedures. The questions relate to
physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, health and medicine, and astronomy. Most of
the questions are based on reading materials that students encounter in textbooks,
reference materials, and periodicals. Many of the passages provide descriptions
of actual experiments and their results. Recall of specific information plays a
limited role. Instead, the questions require students to think critically about
diverse kinds of scientific information; to differentiate among hypotheses, facts,
assumptions, data, and conclusions; to make inferences and predictions; to evaluate
evidence; to see implications; and to generalize experimental results to related
situations.
Sources of Information
This test evaluates the student's ability to use important sources of information.
The skills a student needs in order to find and use data efficiently are: familiarity
with the resources of a well-equipped media center, knowledge of supplemental sources
of information, including private and public agencies; and skill in selecting appropriate
sources for specific information.
