The USE Test in History and Its Validity: Experts of Regional Subject-Specific Committees Speculating on Free-Response Items

Oleg Fedorov and Ksenia Verinchuk

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, 2021, issue 3, 189-211

Abstract: Oleg Fedorov, Candidate of Sciences in History, Associate Professor, Director of the Siberian Institute of Management, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA). Address: 6 Nizhegorodskaya Str., 630102 Novosibirsk, Russian Federation. E-mail: fedorov-od@ranepa.ru (corresponding author) Ksenia Verinchuk, History Teacher, European Gymnasium. Address: 28 Sokolnicheskiy Val Str., 107113 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: k.verinchuk@gmail.com The Unified State Exam (USE) in Russia is both an achievement and admission test, yet its validity has not been looked into on a large scale. The evolution of USE tests is distinctly marked by a growing number of constructed-response items, which might be affecting the validity of test results in many ways. In-depth semi-structured interviews with 36 USE experts in history allow identifying three major threats to USE validity: assessment criteria for items 24 and 25, item content, and expert bias. Interview transcripts were analyzed using content analysis, the results of which are presented along with recommendations on how to further improve the processes of item design and evaluation.

Keywords: constructed-response items; free-response items; history performance assessments; subjectivity in assessment; testing; Unified State Exam (USE); validity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://vo.hse.ru/data/2021/11/04/1455513012/Fedorov.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nos:voprob:2021:i:3:p:189-211

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow from National Research University Higher School of Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marta Morozova ().