Assessing College-Ready Computational Thinking

由于学生对大学和职业准备的需求日益增长，对大学准备技能的高质量评估需求很大。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，并向教师提供快速的反馈。有必要超越多项选择题测试的限制，培养作为大学和职业技能核心的技能和思维，比如计算思维。计算思维是一套有价值的技能，可用于解决问题、设计系统和理解人类行为，因此对培养更具stem素养的公众至关重要。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。这些题目将用于为大学准备的批判性推理技能的测试，并将整合到现有的在线评估系统中，即伯克利评估系统软件。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)可用性，评估项目的有效性及其提供的信息的可靠性，3)教师对评估的使用，以及4)与学生表现的关系。用于试点和实地测试的2,700名研究样本将包括10至12年级的所有级别的学生和大学一年级的学生（包括社区学院和大学水平）。目标人群是正在实施国家数学与科学研究所大学准备计划（CRP）的学校的学生。在2020-21学年，来自11个州（CA、GA、FL、ID、LA、NC、NM、OH、TX、VA和WA）的54所高中将参与其中。这将包括高中学生在大学先修课程以及非大学先修课程。该小组将使用BEAR评估系统来开发和完善评估材料。该系统是一种综合的评估方法，旨在提供与认知和发展目标相关的学生工作的有意义的解释。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其使用。总共将收集数千名学生的项目反应数据。学生的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preK-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preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）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实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.