Scoring of Pathway Tests

All students, including students with disabilities, enrolled in a career-technical education pathway program must take the CTE End of Course Test for each course they are enrolled in. All required Tests and the Education and Training portfolio are reportable in EMIS (Education Management Information System) and can be used in the calculation of the state technical skill attainment indicator of performance (2S1). There are cases where programs have no required test listed and as such nothing is required to be reported in EMIS.

For reporting to the state’s data system, EMIS, all individual test scores are reported per student. The Ohio Department of Education does not collect pathway scores directly from WebXam but instead calculates pathway scores based on the same formulas used by WebXam’s online reports as outlined below:

A student’s Pathway Test score is the average of all scores of EOC Tests taken in the Pathway.
A student’s Pathway Test cutoff is the average of all cutoffs of EOC Tests taken in the Pathway.
A student is considered passing the Pathway Test only if the Pathway Test score meets or exceeds the Pathway Test cutoff.
If an EOC Test is taken more than once, only the best score is used in the calculation of Pathway Test score.
If a student has one or more EOC Tests in field testing, there will be no Pathway Test score until the field tested EOC Tests are rescored.

The calculation of Pathway Test score can be expressed using the following formula:

Pathway Test score =	s₁ + s₂ + s₃ + … + s_n
	n

where s₁ through s_n are the student’s EOC Test percent scores rounded using the Round half up method (only the best attempt is used if an EOC Test is retaken) and n is the number of different EOC Tests taken.

Similarly, the cutoff score is calculated this way:

Pathway Test cutoff=	c₁ + c₂ + c₃ + … + c_n
	n

where c₁ through c_n are the cutoffs for the student’s EOC Tests (only the cutoff for the best attempt if an EOC Test is retaken) and n is the number of different EOC Tests taken.

The Pathway Test is considered passed if Pathway Test score >= Pathway Test cutoff.

What does this mean for a student?

If a student passes all EOC Tests taken, the student will pass the Pathway Test.
If a student does not pass any EOC Test, then the student will not pass the Pathway Test.
If the student passes only some EOC Tests, the student may or may not pass the Pathway Test. The passing status will be determined using the formula above.
The students is responsible for all EOC Tests taken. Scores from all EOC Tests will be factored in to the Pathway Test score.

Students should take only the EOC Tests for the courses that have been delivered. Taking additional EOC Tests will not help, and there is a risk of decreasing the overall Pathway Test score if the student is not familiar with the content.

Questions occasionally arise about how the Center on Education and Training for Employment CETE Psychometric staff obtains the performance standards used to classify student test scores into three levels. This brief explains the process, and additional information can be requested from support@webXam.org at any time.

General Overview

What?	CETE uses three levels to describe performance: Nonproficient, Proficient, and Advanced. Both proficient and advanced levels refer to passing performance, while Nonproficient represents failing performance.
Why?	Performance standards are required to establish passing points on tests. Performance standards address an important question: What does it take in terms of test score to demonstrate proficiency? Advanced proficiency?
When?	Standards are recommended as part of the Standard Setting and Validation workshops conducted after all test content has been written, edited, and reviewed by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE).
Who?	Panels of Subject-Matter Experts (SMEs), usually High School and Post-Secondary instructors, but also business practitioners, participate in a training on concepts of competence, then make judgments used in factoring the performance standard.
How?	CETE staff uses the Angoff method, which involves judgments by SMEs of whether or not (Yes-No) a borderline proficient or borderline advanced test-taker would answer the question correctly. Data are averaged across SME Instructors, and tagged to the item in the CETE item bank. During the first year of release, CETE staff conducts item analysis to select 40-item forms. Then, the weights are pulled over for each item chosen for the final form and the average becomes the cutoff score for Proficient or Advanced levels.