Description of the ITED Tests | Purposes of the ITED Batteries

The descriptions on this page are brief summaries of the content and skills measured by each test across the three test levels.

Vocabulary
This is a test of general vocabulary development. The words tested represent a cross section of vocabulary encountered in general communication: reading, writing, and listening. Technical words and specialized vocabulary have not been included. In order to avoid ambiguity and possible misinterpretation, words are presented in the context of short phrases or sentences. The student is asked to choose, from among five alternative words or phrases, the one closest in meaning to the tested word. The context does not provide "clues"; each of the answer choices is plausible within the context provided for the word.

Reading Comprehension
This test provides information about the kinds of comprehension skills students are expected to continue to develop as they proceed through high school -- skills they will use in reading texts across the curriculum, in engaging with literature, in reading and thinking about magazine and newspaper articles in and outside of school, and in extracting and evaluating ideas from a variety of sources in research projects and extracurricular reading. The passages comprising the Reading Test are all taken from previously published materials. Each test level has five passages: a fiction or narrative passage, an article about a social studies topic and one about a science topic; another nonfiction passage which may be from a biography or memoir, from an essay, or from the general interest domain; and a poem. The prose passages range in length from 440 to 650 words. Over the three levels of the test there are a total of eleven passages, which represent a diverse assortment of well-regarded authors writing in a variety of styles and for a variety of purposes.

The questions associated with each passage require students to demonstrate understanding at each of the three process levels usually associated with reading comprehension: literal, or factual understanding, inference and interpretation, and analysis and generalization. By far the greatest emphasis is on questions that address the higher-level objectives of inferring, analyzing, and generalizing, often described as critical thinking skills. Approximately 60% of the questions at Level 15 are classified in these categories, while 70% of those at Level 17/18 measure these objectives.

Language: Revising Written Materials
This test provides information about the student's skills in recognizing correct and effective use of standard American English in writing. In the context of a variety of written materials, the test asks students to make revision choices concerning focus, organization, diction and clarity, sentence structure, usage, mechanics, and spelling -- much as they do in the editing of near-final drafts of their own writing.

All test questions are based on four relatively long, complete texts (ranging from 125 to 450 words) that are patterned after student writing in content and style. These texts -- in the form of letters, essays, personal accounts, and reports written for various courses -- are presented as drafts in which certain portions have been underlined to indicate a possible need for revision. The corresponding questions pose alternatives that may correct or improve the underlined portions. In some cases, there is a clear-cut error in mechanics or usage, sometimes the consideration is one of fluency or clarity, and occasionally it is the appropriateness of the content for the task that is at issue.

Spelling
Each of the three levels of the ITED Spelling Test -- Level 15, 16, and 17/18 -- is a 10-minute, 30-question test. Each question presents four words, one of which may be misspelled, and a fifth option, No mistakes, allowing students to indicate that they believe all four words are spelled correctly. The fact that there is a No mistakes answer choice forces students to examine the spelling of each word on the test. Thus, in effect, each level of the spelling test evaluates student' knowledge of the correct spelling of 120 words.

Mathematics: Concepts and Problem Solving
The content and processes measured by this test closely follow the standards suggested by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in its publication, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Just as the focus of the NCTM Principles and Standards is on fundamental concepts and reasoning skills, the primary intent of the test is to measure the student's ability to solve quantitative problems. The questions in this test present practical problems that require basic arithmetic and measurement, estimation, data interpretation, and logical thinking. The problems are based on realistic situations. A few questions test more abstract concepts such as precision of measurement, probability, and exponents. The test's emphasis on probability and statistics is consistent with the special emphasis given these topics in the Standards.

The primary objective of this test is to measure students' abilities to use appropriate mathematical reasoning, not to test computational facility under pressure. To this end, the number of items requiring computation is minimal. In each level of the test, approximately 15 items require computation. Of these, most involve round numbers or single-digit numbers. In addition, a number of the questions require students to analyze a problem and select the sequence of mathematics steps, or "set-up," that, if carried out, would yield the correct solution; the computation itself is not required.

Computation
This test is provided to enable each school system to tailor the selection of tests to the goals of its mathematics curriculum. In school systems which de-emphasize computation in the curriculum, the Mathematics: Concepts and Problem Solving test provides information to help evaluate performance and growth in mathematics. For school systems which include computational skills as part of their curriculum, the two tests in combination may provide a more complete profile of development within the mathematics program.

The questions included in this test were selected to represent the skills that are most directly related to the computational manipulations needed throughout the secondary school mathematics curriculum. Thus, the computation test includes not only questions that measure the ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, fractions, and percents, but also questions that measure the ability to manipulate variables and to evaluate expressions with exponents or with square roots.

Analysis of Social Studies Materials
This test provides evidence of the student's ability to analyze and evaluate various kinds of social studies information. The test passages and questions use materials from a variety of content areas: history, political science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, geography, and economics. While each question has as its context one or more of the content areas, the answers to the questions, for the most part, do not depend on recall of specific facts learned in such courses. Primary documents, posters, cartoons, timelines, maps, graphs, tables, charts, and reading passages are used to present information to students. The skills measured by the majority of questions are probably reinforced in a variety of social studies classes.

Analysis of Science Materials
This test provides information about students' abilities to interpret and evaluate information in the sciences, to recognize basic principles of scientific inquiry and measurement, and to analyze experimental procedures. The questions relate to physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, health and medicine, and astronomy. Most of the questions are based on reading materials that students encounter in textbooks, reference materials, and periodicals. Many of the passages provide descriptions of actual experiments and their results. Recall of specific information plays a limited role. Instead, the questions require students to think critically about diverse kinds of scientific information; to differentiate among hypotheses, facts, assumptions, data, and conclusions; to make inferences and predictions; to evaluate evidence; to see implications; and to generalize experimental results to related situations.

Sources of Information
This test evaluates the student's ability to use important sources of information. The skills a student needs in order to find and use data efficiently are: familiarity with the resources of a well-equipped media center, knowledge of supplemental sources of information, including private and public agencies; and skill in selecting appropriate sources for specific information.

Description of the ITED Tests | Purposes of the ITED Batteries

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