The following post if from Mary Jane Jerde.
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Greetings,
 
This is primarily for the BEST Plus person.
 
It seemed worthwhile to use BEST Plus in my multilevel Even Start ESL
class   for several reasons. (The old BEST was an excellent assessment
tool for entry into another program where I previously taught. CASAS has
some out of date items, and the repetition of Forms 53 and 54 is not
good for assessment; this is especially obvious when students test into
Forms 55 and 56 and go into shock. Finally,  BEST Plus is to assess the
students' comprehension and production of English.)
 
Unfortunately, in our program we've had trouble getting consistent
results from assessor to assessor. Yes, we all heard in training that
the correlation was over 95%, but we've found that a student's ability
to speak clearly seems to pull her/his overall score up. For example, a
student may receive a top mark, 3, for oral communication, while really
answering very briefly and simply, and end up  with a high score. Also,
some questions merely require a yes or no response. For an academically
or linguistically savvy beginner, it's easy to follow the grammar
pattern and respond appropriately. 
 
Do you have any ideas on how to counteract these tendencies to score
students higher than their normal speech?
 
Thanks,
 
Mary Jane Jerde
mjjerdems at yahoo.com 
 
 
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