Questar Test Performance Analysis 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A teacher notices that a student scores well on multiple-choice items but struggles with open-ended responses. What does this discrepancy most likely indicate?
- The student has test anxiety on open-ended items
- The student can recognize correct answers but has difficulty constructing responses (Correct answer)
- The multiple-choice items are too easy
- The student needs more time on assessments
Correct answer: The student can recognize correct answers but has difficulty constructing responses
Discrepancies between recognition and recall tasks often signal that a student can identify correct information but cannot independently produce it.
Question 2: On a Questar assessment, which statistic best describes how spread out student scores are from the mean?
- Median
- Mode
- Standard deviation (Correct answer)
- Raw score
Correct answer: Standard deviation
Standard deviation measures the average distance of scores from the mean, indicating the degree of score variability.
Question 3: A school's reading proficiency rate drops from 72% to 65% in one year. Before drawing conclusions, an analyst should first check:
- Whether the state changed its proficiency cut score (Correct answer)
- The school's lunch program quality
- The number of teachers who left
- Whether the school purchased new textbooks
Correct answer: Whether the state changed its proficiency cut score
Changes in cut scores directly affect reported proficiency rates and must be verified before interpreting year-to-year comparisons.
Question 4: Which type of Questar score report is most useful for identifying which specific skills an individual student has not yet mastered?
- Class aggregate report
- District summary report
- Student diagnostic report (Correct answer)
- Norm-referenced rank report
Correct answer: Student diagnostic report
A student diagnostic report breaks performance down by skill strand, revealing specific areas of strength and weakness for each learner.
Question 5: When comparing Questar results across two schools with very different student populations, educators should use:
- Raw score totals only
- Demographically disaggregated data (Correct answer)
- Teacher observation notes
- Attendance records alone
Correct answer: Demographically disaggregated data
Disaggregating data by subgroup allows for more equitable comparisons by accounting for differences in student demographics.
Question 6: A performance analysis reveals that ELL students in Grade 5 score significantly lower on word problems than on computation items. The most actionable next step is to:
- Exempt ELL students from word problems
- Provide language support and vocabulary instruction for math contexts (Correct answer)
- Replace word problems with purely numerical tasks
- Move ELL students to a lower grade level
Correct answer: Provide language support and vocabulary instruction for math contexts
Targeted language support addresses the root cause—academic vocabulary gaps—without reducing the rigor of mathematical content.
Question 7: Which term describes the consistency of a Questar assessment in producing similar results when administered under similar conditions?
- Validity
- Reliability (Correct answer)
- Alignment
- Scalability
Correct answer: Reliability
Reliability refers to the consistency or repeatability of assessment scores across different administrations or raters.
Questar Test Performance Analysis 2
A teacher notices that a student scores well on multiple-choice items but struggles with open-ended responses.
What does this discrepancy most likely indicate?