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.

In this study, we investigated how elementary science teaching has changed with the introduction of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). Teachers are held accountable for student performance as measured by the mandatory nation-wide standards tests to satisfy the needs of accountability and quality assurance systems. In relation to the teaching of science in the elementary school, professionalism meets potential threats with the advent of national test. Through analysis of the classroom teaching and open-ended interviews, we explored the teacher's concerns about the national test and how their science classes have changed to prepare for this test. According to the results, the national test made elementary teachers accountable for the content of their science classes, limits teachers' autonomy in reconstruction of curriculum, and forced teachers to conduct conclusion-centered lessons even in elementary science classes. In addition, teachers argue that the national test precludes the possibility of differentiated education and differentiated assessment. Based on the results, we suggested a new professionalism in this accountability era, so called 'informed professionalism', which refers to the ability of teachers to interpret and implement curriculum and policy mandates at the local, school and classroom level to generate equitable and improved student outcomes through teaching and learning. We also suggested further research on the teacher professionalism in teaching science contents.