AN ACHIEVEMENT TEST IN READING COMPREHENSION, GRAMMAR

AWARENESS AND LITERATURE FOR GRADE TEN STUDENTS OF ANGELICUM

PRIMAROSA SCHOOL, AY. 2015-2016

Clark Dominic L. Alipasa and Manasseh T. Ranada

ENG640m: Language Testing and Evaluation

De La Salle University, Manila

I. Introduction

K to 12 (also K-12) is an education system under the Department of Education that

aims to enhance learners’ basic skills, produce more competent citizens, and prepare
graduates for lifelong learning and employment.“K” stands for Kindergarten
and “12” refers to the succeeding 12 years of basic education (6 years of elementary
education, 4 years of junior high school, and 2 years of senior high school)
(K12Philippines, 2015).

It has been implemented in the country when President Benigno Aquino III signed
it into law in 2013 to purposively focus on lifelong learning competencies or skills to
produce graduates who are qualified and capable to work. Thus, language as the basis of
all communication, the primary instrument of though and the foundation of all human
relationship is of major importance and one of the core subects in this K-12 enhanced basic
education program.

In regard with the role of language in the 21st century learning, the effective
language arts and multiliteracies curriculum aims to help learners acquire highly-developed
literacy skills that enable them to understand that English language is a dynamic social
process which responds to and reflects changing social conditions, and that English is
inextricably involved with values, beliefs and ways of thinking about ourselves and the
world we live in.
 Integrating the above-mentioned principles, the conceptual framework in the next
page shows that the heart of the LAMC is making meaning through language and that it
has five (5) components (DepEd, 2013) in which assessment play a highly-significant role.

The Conceptual Framework

The framework below shows that assessments are one of pillars of the k-12 English
Language Arts and Multiliteracies curriculum. It has five components: learning processes,
effective language use (understanding of culutres, languages, processes and strategies), the
macro skills making meaning through language, and holistic assessment which serves as
feedback of its effectiveness.
Significance of the Study

A holistic assessment should be administered in order to garner valid and reliable feedbacks
that will be communicated to benefit students, teachers, administrators and curriculum developers
who are all involved in the integrated language arts learning process.

There are integrated language arts domains which are reorganized and aligned with the five
sub-strands, and these three domains, which appear below, deem consistent in the reading and
writing fields that are prevalent in written summative assessments. The table in the next page
shows that alignment of reading comprehension, grammar awareness and literature to the reading
and writing sub-strands:

LANGUAGE
ARTS LISTENING SPEAKING READING WRITING VIEWING
DOMAINS
Reading
Comprehension
-informational
text
 
Grammar
Awareness and
Structure    
Attitude
towards
language,
literacy and
   
literature

Rationale and Statement of the Problem

Achievement tests used to evaluate students reading and writing skills should be holistic to
measure these three important areas. Relatively, the following are the questions that this study
seeks to answer:

1. In which learning domain among reading comprehension, grammar awareness and

literature have students encountered troubles or difficulties in answering?
 2. Which component among knowledge, process and understanding contain the most number
of acceptable and/or improvable items?
3. Which items in the achievement test require to be revised, replaced or removed based on
the item difficulty indeces?

When the answers to these questions are sought, the target output of this study is to create
and present an achievement test in English for grade 10 students that evaluate their competencies
in reading comprehension, grammar awareness and structure and literature. With the results of the
pilot administration and the subsequent item analysis, items will be improved as necessary in
order to generate a test which is considered to be valid and reliable to assess students’ longitudinal
language learning.

II

Methods

In order to generate an achievement test that can validly and reliably evaluate students’
learning of important competencies in reading comprehenion, grammar and literature, a pilot
administration will take place, and through the presentation and analysis results, the test
constructors can deliberate about appropriacy and complexity of every item whether or not they
should be retained, replaced or revised.

Context of the Study

The pilot administration of the sample achievement test in English takes place in
Angelicum Primarosa Montessori School, a private Catholic institution inside the Villa de
Primarosa Village in the City of Imus, Cavite, which offers complete basic education (from nursery
to Grade 11 the current year) since 2003. This school primarily serves as the research site and
target institution of the study. The said test is administered in the Grade 10 classroom in the Day
1 of their final exam. The media of instruction used in the school are Filipino and English, yet
Filipino is more commonly used, for this is the native language of the majority (if not all). The
above-named institution also follows the prescribed K-12 enhanced basic education curriculum of
the K-12, its updated grading system, and the approaches that are advised therealong.

Ethical Considerations

The permission of the school administrators is asked prior to the entrustment of the
reproduced questionnaires to the grade 10 English teacher and adviser of the Grade 10 students of
Angelicum Primarosa Montessori School. Accordingly, the grade 10 students are informed
beforehand about the said achievement test that will contain test items for reading comprehension,
grammar and literature. The teachers are also oriented about the purpose of the study and about
the instructions or what the students are expected to do in every part. Furthermore, all the
participating students of grade ten are also aware of the rationale of the test administration, and
their scores will have no bearing in their 4th quarter grades or current term standing, nor their
names will be mentioned individually in the term paper that will be presented in De La Salle
University.

The Research Participants

The participants of the study are forty (40) grade ten students of Angelicum Primarosa
Montessori School in the academic year 2015-2016. The group is composed of twenty-two girls
and eighteen boys who are all outgoing completers of the junior high school curriculum of the K-
12 in the current year. Most of them are residents of Villa de Primarosa where the school is also
located. They have varied economic backgrounds, but most of them have been students of the said
school since their 7th grade, while some have been in the school since pre-elementary, and notably,
they are the first compliants of the recently-implemented K-12 basic education curriculum—first
batch of completers and soon-to-be graduates of the first ever Grade 12 or senior high school in
the Philippines in 2018.
Research Instrument

The achievement test consists of 52 items: 25 points for knowlede, 15 for process, and 12
for understanding. This is based on the required percentage that easy up to the most challenging
item should comprise in a test. The types of test for the knowledge part are identification and error
recognition with the following learning competencies:

 identify the kind of sensory imagery used;

 determine how literary devices can be used and interpreted;
 use pronouns effectively; and
 enumerate elements of a narrative.

Then the process part is made up of short-response essay questions and sentence-
completion items with the following competencies which are all based on the DepEd English
curriculum guide as well:

 infer the theme by analyzing the elements specific to a selection;

 explain how specific element build up the theme of a selection; and
 use reflexive and intensive pronouns.

The last part is composed of a reading comprehension test each of the three questions to be
answered by a composition seek to cover the following competencies:

 make generalizations;
 use patterns and techniques of developing an argumentative essay; and
 evaluate literature as a vehicle of expressing and resolving conflicts between and among
individuals or groups.

Copies of the questionnaires being pertained hereunto are attached in the index section.
 III

Results

The following table shows the results and analysis of the administered test for Grade 10
in Angelicum Primarosa School.

Item Number of Correct % Difficulty Level

Number Answers Correct
1 20 95% very easy
2 20 95% very easy
3 19 90% very easy
4 19 90% very easy
5 19 90% very easy
6 5 24% moderate
7 3 14% very difficult
8 10 48% moderate
9 0 0% very difficult
10 3 14% very difficult
11 16 76% easy
12 14 67% moderate
13 16 76% easy
14 15 71% easy
15 20 95% very easy
16 7 33% moderate
17 18 86% very easy
18 16 76% easy
19 19 94% very easy
20 10 48% moderate
21 11 52% moderate
22 13 62% moderate
23 14 67% moderate
24 12 57% moderate
25 10 48% moderate
26 11 52% moderate
27 11 52% moderate
 28 11 52% moderate
29 11 52% moderate
30 11 52% moderate
31 12 58% moderate
32 19 90% very easy
33 16 76% easy
34 17 81% easy
35 5 24% difficult
36 14 67% moderate
37 13 62% moderate
38 16 76% easy
39 13 62% moderate
40 15 71% easy
41 16 76% easy
42 2 10% very difficult
43 2 10% very difficult
44 2 10% very difficult
45 2 10% very difficult
46 2 10% very difficult
47 2 10% very difficult
48 2 10% very difficult
49 2 10% very difficult
50 6 29% difficult
51 5 24% difficult
52 5 24% difficult
53 5 24% difficult

Item Analysis

Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to individual test items
(questions) in order to assess the quality of those items and of the test as a whole. Item analysis
improves the test items that will be used again in later tests. It can also be used to eliminate
ambiguous or misleading items in a single test.
Item Difficulty

In the given result, the KNOWLEDGE part or test items nos. 1-25 with one correct
alternative worth a single point the item difficulty is simply the percentage of students who answer
an item correctly. In this case, it is also equal to the item mean. The item difficulty index ranges
from 0 to 100; the higher the value, the easier the question.

Item difficulty is relevant for determining whether students have learned the concept being
tested. It also plays an important role in the ability of an item to discriminate between students
who know the tested material and those who do not. The item will have low discrimination if it is
so difficult that almost everyone gets it wrong or guesses, or so easy that almost everyone gets it
right.

To maximize item discrimination, desirable difficulty levels are slightly higher than
midway between chance and perfect scores for the item. (The chance score for five-option
questions, for example, is 20 because one-fifth of the students responding to the question could be
expected to choose the correct option by guessing.)

Item Discrimination

Item discrimination refers to the ability of an item to differentiate among students on the
basis of how well they know the material being tested. Various hand calculation procedures have
traditionally been used to compare item responses to total test scores using high and low scoring
groups of students. Computerized analyses provide more accurate assessment of the discrimination
power of items because they take into account responses of all students rather than just high and
low scoring groups. The following table shows the item discrimination.
 INDICES OF DIFFICULTY AND DISCRIMINATION
(BY HOPKINS AND ANTES)
INDEX DIFFICULTY DISCRIMINATION
0.86 above Very Easy To be discarded
0.71 – 0.85 Easy To be revised
0.30 – 0.70 Moderate Very good items
0.15 – 0.29 Difficult To be revised
0.14 below Very Difficult To be discarded

The following shows item nos. 1-25 based on the the difficulty level and the item
discrimination. The items are arranged from the very easy to very difficult. We can also see the
number of students who answered each item correctly and its percentage.

Item Number of Correct %

Difficulty Level Discrimination
Number Answers Correct
1 20 95% very easy To be discarded
2 20 95% very easy To be discarded
15 20 95% very easy To be discarded
3 19 90% very easy To be discarded
4 19 90% very easy To be discarded
5 19 90% very easy To be discarded
19 19 94% very easy To be discarded
17 18 86% very easy To be discarded
11 16 76% easy To be revised
13 16 76% easy To be revised
18 16 76% easy To be revised
14 15 71% easy To be revised
12 14 67% moderate Very good items
23 14 67% moderate Very good items
22 13 62% moderate Very good items
24 12 57% moderate Very good items
21 11 52% moderate Very good items
8 10 48% moderate Very good items
20 10 48% moderate Very good items
25 10 48% moderate Very good items
16 7 33% moderate Very good items
6 5 24% moderate Very good items
7 3 14% very difficult To be discarded
10 3 14% very difficult To be discarded
9 0 0% very difficult To be discarded
 As we have tabulated the results, we have analyzed that there are 8 very easy items that
needed to be discarded, as well as 3 very difficult items. Also, there are 4 easy items that are
necessary to be revised. Furthermore, there are 10 moderate items that are very good items which
will be kept in this test.

Moving to the second part of the assessment which is Process, items 26 to 31 are about
inferring the theme of selected fables. Out of 21 respondents, only 11 are able to formulate a
satisfactory theme. With the difficulty index of 0.52, these items on inferring the theme of the
selections may be retained and considered in the improved questionnaire for the achievement test,
for the percentage shows that the test type is not so easy and not so difficult. Thus, the first part of
the process assessment is just appropriate to the level of the target learners.

Whereas the first part of the process is just labeled moderate, the items second part about
the proper use of pronouns and identifying whether they are intensive or reflextive garner different
difficulty indeces:

Item 32 is very easy, while 33 and 34 are easy. We can revise the introductory part of the
paragraph to completed with a more challenging setting; yet, giving easy items in the preliminary
items of a part may also be advisable according to other sources. Items 36 and 37 with 0.67 and
0.62 are considered moderate, so these can be retained. nonetheless 38, 40 and 41 are marked easy,
so we can develop the context and/or add more words and modifiers, for the students to be more
able to critically think and decide what the antecedents are, and which pronouns correctly agree
with them. To sum up, it is not very necessary to drop or remove the items, and only few revisions
are appropriate to be effected to the given paragraph.

The last part of the assessment is understanding wherein there is an argumentative speech
provided for the test takers to read and analize in order for them to answer the questions that follow
based on what are asked and the designed rubric. As to the results of the item analysis, most of the
questions are marked as difficult and very difficult. Although test questions are normally arranged
from easy to difficult, revising and replacing these items may also deem very important especially
the points given to this part are very integral in the composition of their grades. To respond
positively to the item difficulty indices, replacing these short-essay reponse essay items into
selective response type test items where students will be given with a set of choices to choose from
can certainly lessen the complexity of this test, making it more suitable to their current or average
lexile level in reading.

In conclusion, most items in the beggining or Knowledge part are easy, and the concluding
essay items in the understanding are mostly difficult. To generate an achievement assessment
which is more valid, reliable and practical, adjustments and modifications are to be undertaken to
cater the needs, capability, aptitude, and level of the grade 10 students in reading comprehension,
grammar awareness and structure, and world literature.

References

DepEd (2013). K-12 Curriculum Guide - English. K-12 Basic Education Curriculum. Retrieved
from http://www.deped.gov.ph/sites/default/files/English%20CG%20Grade%201-
10%2001.30.2014.pdf

K12Philippines (2015). What is K-12? Retrieved April 2016 from http://k12philippines.com/

University of Washington - Office of Educational Assessment. Retrieved from

http://www.washington.edu/assessment/scanning-scoring/scoring/reports/item-analysis/