In accordance with the principles of universal design and best practices for student experience, we recently updated the student directions for test levels 5/6 -8, typically administered at grade levels K, 1, and 2. This update included streamlining the user experience to provide fewer screens to click through and shorter, more engaging scripting for audio administration.
Riverside’s test development and psychometric research teams conducted a comparability study, matching side by side performance with the original and streamlined instructions, to ensure that student performance on the assessment would not be affected by these changes. While students and test proctors preferred the testing experience with the shortened directions, our team was able to verify that the changes could be implemented without any impact to student scores.