Keywords

Achievement levels are performance standards describing what students who achieve a given level on a scale typically know and can do. They refer to academic achievement providing a context for interpreting students’ scores on different assessments. Each achievement level description reveals a picture across a broad range of performance levels with corresponding details related to the framework. They are cumulative, students performing at one of the superior levels also displaying the competencies associated with the lower levels.

For example, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) utilizes scale anchoring procedure to summarize and describe achievement at four points on the mathematics and science scales – Advanced International Benchmark (625), High International Benchmark (550), Intermediate International Benchmark (475), and Low International Benchmark (400). The first step was to identify those students scoring at each cut point followed by determining which particular items anchored at each of these benchmarks. To determine which items students at each benchmark are most likely to answer successfully, the percent correct for those students was calculated for each item. The delineation of sets of items that students at each international benchmark are very likely to answer correctly and that discriminate between adjacent anchor points takes into consideration the percentage of students at a particular benchmark correctly answering an item and the percentage of students scoring at the next lower benchmark who correctly answer an item. The experts based on the items’ descriptions within each benchmark elaborated the descriptors according to the frameworks. The result is a summary of the international learning outcomes in terms of acquiring skills and knowledge reflecting demonstrably different accomplishments by students reaching each successively higher benchmark.

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