Assessing College-Ready Computational Thinking

由于越来越多的学生需要为大学和职业做好准备，对大学准备技能的高质量评估需求很高。为了实现让学生为大学和职业生涯做好准备的目标，评估必须衡量重要的能力，并向教师提供快速反馈。有必要超越多项选择测试的限制，培养处于大学和职业准备技能核心的技能和思维，例如计算思维。计算思维是一套有价值的技能，可以用来解决问题、设计系统和理解人类行为，因此对于培养更懂STEM的公众来说是必不可少的。计算思维越来越被视为一种基本的分析技能，每个人都可以使用，而不仅仅是计算机科学家。这个项目的目标是开发针对计算思维的学习进度和评估项目。这些项目将用于测试准备上大学的批判性推理能力，并将整合到现有的在线评估系统--伯克利评估系统软件中。该项目将解决一系列研究问题，重点是1)澄清计算思维结构，2)评估项目及其提供的信息的可用性、可靠性，3)教师使用评估的情况，以及4)与学生表现的关系。用于试点和实地测试的2700个研究样本将包括从10年级到12年级的所有级别的学生和一年级的学生(社区学院和大学水平)。目标人群是正在实施国家数学和科学研究所的大学准备计划(CRP)的学校的学生。在2020-21学年，来自11个州(加州、弗吉尼亚州、佛罗里达州、密歇根州、洛杉矶、北卡罗来纳州、北卡罗来纳州、俄亥俄州、德克萨斯州、弗吉尼亚州和华盛顿州)的54所高中将参与其中。这将包括参加先修班和非先修班的高中生。该团队将使用贝尔斯登评估系统来开发和完善评估材料。这一系统是一种综合的评估方法，旨在为学生的工作提供与认知和发展目标相关的有意义的解释。研究人员将收集经验证据来开发和改进评估材料，然后收集信度和效度证据来支持它们的使用。总而言之，将从数千名学生那里收集项目回应数据。学生反应数据将使用多维项目反应理论模型进行分析。探索研究PRK-12项目(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高Pre-K-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Because of the growing need for students to be college and career ready, high-quality assessments of college readiness skills are in high demand. To realize the goal of preparing students for college and careers, assessments must measure important competencies and provide rapid feedback to teachers. It is necessary to go beyond the limits of multiple-choice testing and foster the skills and thinking that lie at the core of college and career ready skills, such as computational thinking. Computational thinking is a set of valuable skills that can be used to solve problems, design systems, and understand human behavior, and is thus essential to developing a more STEM-literate public. Computational thinking is increasingly seen as a fundamental analytical skill that everyone, not just computer scientists, can use. The goal of this project is to develop learning progressions and assessment items targeting computational thinking. The items will be used for a test of college-ready critical reasoning skills and will be integrated into an existing online assessment system, the Berkeley Assessment System Software.The project will address a set of research questions focused on 1) clarifying computational thinking constructs, 2) usability, reliability of validity of assessment items and the information they provide, 3) teachers' use of assessments, and 4) relationships to student performance. The study sample of 2,700 used for the pilot and field tests will include all levels of students in 10th through 12th grade and first year college students (both community college and university level). The target population is students in schools which are implementing the College Readiness Program (CRP) of the National Mathematics and Science Institute. In the 2020-21 academic year 54 high schools across 11 states (CA, GA, FL, ID, LA, NC, NM, OH, TX, VA, and WA) will participate. This will include high school students in Advanced Placement classes as well as non-Advanced Placement classes. The team will use the BEAR Assessment System to develop and refine assessment materials. This system is an integrated approach to developing assessments that seeks to provide meaningful interpretations of student work relative to cognitive and developmental goals. The researchers will gather empirical evidence to develop and improve the assessment materials, and then gather reliability and validity evidence to support their use. In total, item response data will be collected from several thousand students. Student response data will be analyzed using multidimensional item response theory models.The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.