The Effects of Providing Students with Revision Opportunities in Alternate Assessments

ABSTRACT Some statewide testing programs allow students to receive corrective feedback and revise their answers during testing. Despite its pedagogical benefits, the effects of providing revision opportunities remain unknown in the context of alternate assessments. Therefore, this study examined student data from a large-scale alternate assessment that allows students to make multiple attempts until they find the correct answer to multiple-choice items. The students receive partial credit based on the number of attempts being made. The effects of the multiple-attempt approach on both test characteristics and student performance were investigated. The results indicated that, despite making most items on the assessment relatively easier, the availability of partial credit improved the strength of the items in distinguishing low-achieving and high-achieving students while maintaining high internal consistency among the test items. Although the students were able to increase their scores due to the inclusion of partial credit based on the number of attempts, the relative positions of the students remained nearly the same.