Low motivation to perform well on a test is a potentially problematic source of construct-irrelevant variance (Messick, 1980), especially when there are low or no stakes attached to performance. That is, interpretations of test scores as indicators of students' knowledge and skills may be compromised if those students do not put forth the effort…

International assessments in higher education are especially challenging because differences across countries (e.g., educational systems, SES) increase the complexity of testing. This becomes even more challenging when using performance-based assessments, which are becoming more prominent in assessment programs. ANVUR collaborated with the Council…

There is much to discuss, and debate, about the sources and effects of inequality on economic growth and social mobility, and the relationship between education and economic growth. However, an undergraduate degree from a highly selective and elite college gives students a strong advantage in gaining employment in jobs that promise greater…

Some universities administer standardized tests to estimate school effects on student learning. To that end, many of those institutions choose to gather cross-sectional data (freshmen and seniors in the same academic year) rather than longitudinal data. The effects of this decision on institutional assessment results are generally unknown. The…

Low-stakes assessments are commonly used in educational institutions as measures of student learning, but suffer from some threats to validity. Low-student motivation is one issue facing the validity of these assessments, as research has found student motivation to impact performance on low-stakes exams. The current study aimed to determine (a) if…

Do "generic" skills such as critical thinking and written communication matter in the workplace? A recent study indicates that, in addition to a student's major in college and the selectivity of an institution, better performance on an assessment of critical-thinking and written-communication skills is associated with higher rates of…

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) in an effort to measure learning in international postsecondary education. This paper presents a study of scoring equivalence across nine countries for two translated and adapted performance tasks. Results reveal…

The measurement of higher-order competencies within a tertiary education system across countries presents methodological challenges due to differences in educational systems, socio-economic factors, and perceptions as to which constructs should be assessed (Blömeke, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Kuhn, & Fege, 2013). According to Hart Research…

Low-stakes assessments are increasingly being used by institutions of higher education as measures of student learning. One issue facing the validity of these assessments is that of student motivation, as research indicates that student motivation may play a large role in influencing test scores. To address this issue, the current study sought to…

Poor motivation is commonly cited as a concern when interpreting results from low-stakes standardized tests administered to postsecondary students. This study investigates the associations between test administration procedures and students' self-reported effort and performance on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), an open-ended test of…