Educators use academic testing to measure the knowledge and skills of their students, but research has shown that some students exhibit minimal test-taking effort (TTE) on low-stakes tests (Wise & Kong, 2005; Wise 2015). Given the importance of test validity, there is a need for further research on the contexts in which low TTE occurs and possible correlates of low TTE. The goals of the current study were to measure the prevalence of low TTE in elementary and middle school contexts, identify groups for whom low TTE is particularly apparent, and examine whether motivational variables are associated with low TTE. Study I involved the analysis of item-level test data for students in grades four and eight (N = 572,847) to identify the proportion of students who submitted responses so rapidly that they are not considered valid. In Study II, students in grades seven and eight (N = 675) completed an online survey that measured their expectancy and value beliefs (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) related to taking the STAR Reading test (Renaissance Learning, 2014). Results of logistic regression analyses indicated that grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, attainment value beliefs, and cost beliefs were significantly associated with the odds of low TTE. These findings suggest that potential ways to improve student TTE may include informing students about how a test will be used to enhance their learning. Related suggestions for future research that might meaningfully extend the present findings are provided.
Read
