This study examined the reading passages of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) and middle school English textbooks in terms of their readability and lexical difficulty. The readability was measured by using Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index, while their lexical difficulty was measured in terms of STTR (standardized type-token ratio), frequency of tokens per type, and vocabulary frequency levels by using VocabProfile and Oxford WordSmith Tools 7.0. The results showed that there was a gap between the readability of the English textbooks and that of the NAEA conducted from 2012 to 2014, while the readability between the English textbooks and that of the 2015 NAEA reached a comparable level. However, the textbooks from one publisher showed substantively lower readability than those from the other publishers and the NAEA. Secondly, regarding vocabulary frequency levels, the words in 1K and 2K accounted for more than 90% of the textbooks and the NAEA, while the NAEA had a higher STTR and lower frequency of tokens per type than the textbooks. It suggests that the NAEA employed more various words with less repetition than the textbooks. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

This study investigated the effects of reducing the number of options in multiple-choice items on the psychometric characteristics of the English section of the NAEA (National Assessment of Educational Achievement). The purpose of the NAEA is to measure educational progress and achievement and it is administered to all sixth, ninth, and eleventh grade Korean students annually. The English section for the ninth graders is the focus of this study; it is made up of thirty-four five-option multiple-choice items and six constructed-response items. A five-option, multiple-choice English test was converted to a four- and a three-option version by eliminating the least and the second least frequently chosen options. Item difficulty, item discrimination, guessing, reliability, and information function were computed as a function of the number of options. This study employed the 3-parameter IRT model. Results showed that there were no significant differences among the three means of item difficulty as well as item discrimination indices; however, the inspection of the test information function indicated that the five-option version generally yielded the highest amount of test information function over the ability scale. Results indicate that streamlined three- or four-option versions are not likely to function as well as the five-option version at the test level.

Thís study ínvestigated the effect of students’ background characterístícs on their performance on the NAEA (Natíonal Assessment of Educational Achíevement). In thís study, 6th, 9th ’ and 11 th grade students' Englísh scores on the NAEA ín the year of 2004 were employed. ßased on prevíous studíes, ten student varíables were selected. The fo l1owíng two research questíons were addressed. Fírst, what ís the rel atíonshíp between student varíables and NAEA scores? Second, to what extent does the predíctíve power of varíables díffer across the school level? Two statistical analyses (correlatíon and híerarchícal regressíon analysís) were performed us ing the SPSS version 18.0. Results of correlation analysis revealed that ‘ understanding in English class' was híghly correlated with NAEA scores . Results of the híerarchícal regressíon analysís showed that ‘ understandíng ín Englísh class ' was the best predíctor of NAEA scores across the school level. The predíctíve power of ‘tlme spent on prívate tutoring or c1asses taken at private institutions’ became weaker, as the school level íncreases from elementary to hígh school. The predíctive power of ‘ self-study tíme' became stronger, as the school level increases. The findíngs províde practical ímplícatíons for polícy-makers wíth respect to íncreasing EngIísh achievement.

본 연구의 목적은 최근 5년간 중학교 3학년을 대상으로 실시된 국가수준 학업성취도 평가 문항을 지구과학 영역을 중심으로 3차원 과학 평가틀을 활용하여 분석해 보았으며, 그 분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 과학 내용 영역의 분석 결과는 ‘에너지’, ‘물질’, ‘생명’, ‘지구’의 문항수가 고르게 출제 되었다. 지구(지구과학)영역을 단원별로 분석한 결과는 ‘지구와 별’이 가장 출제가 많이 되었으며, ‘태양계의 운동’이 가장 출제 빈도가 낮았고, 내용에 따라서 출제 빈도의 차이를 보이고 있었다. 둘째, 행동 영역의 분석 결과, 지식 범주가 탐구의 범주보다 높게 나타났으며, 지구과학 영역의 분석 결과도 과학 영역과 큰 차이가 없었다. 셋째, 상황 영역의 분석 결과, 탐구 상황 4개 범주 중 순수 과학적 상황이 가장 높았다. 본 연구는 이들 분석 결과를 토대로 2007 개정 교육과정 지구과학 목표의 도달정도를 확인하는 2012학년도 국가수준 학업성취도 평가의 개선 방향을 제시하고자 한다.