Update on the Mathematics 30-1 and 30-2 Diploma Exams - Michael Gaschnitz

On Wednesday, October 15th, 2012, I attended the session “Provincial Assessment for Mathematics 30-1 and 30-1” presented by Ross Marian, the Team Leader for Math 30-1 and Pure Math 30, and Rob Shaughnessy, the Examiner for Math 30-2 and Applied Math 30.  

Here are some key updates from that session:

• The time permitted for the Math 30-1 and Math 30-2 diploma exams is a half hour longer than for Pure Math 30 or Applied Math 30.   “The allotted time … is two and a half hours; however, an additional half hour is allowed for students to complete the exam” (Mathematics 30-1 Information Bulletin).  Note that the allotted time for the science diploma exams is unchanged.  The Examiners argued that students need more time to answer mathematics questions.  Increasing the permitted time will reduce the speededness property of a test, and that will increase the validity of the results to some extent.  In other words,  we are more likely to measure if a student is able to complete a math problem rather than how fast the student can complete a math problem.  The ideal situation is to have unlimited time available so that speededness is completely eliminated --unless we do want to compare one student against another on the basis of their speed.  Ideally, we would give students an unlimited amount of time so that speededness was completely eliminated, but there are always practical considerations.  The testing industry generally considers a test unspeeded when “at least 80% of the test takers complete all items and all test takers complete at least 75% of the items” (van der Linden, 2011).

• The “Research Project” unit of Math 30-2 will not be tested on the diploma exam because teachers were unable to develop suitable items for this topic--but they tried hard.  We are advised to consult the Alberta Assessment Consortium (www.aac.ab.ca) for  a number of student exemplars, rubrics and tasks related to the research projects for Math 20-2 and Math 30-2.  Nina Goodman had considered joining this consortium almost a decade ago, but decided not to because of the cost, however, perhaps we should reconsider.

• 15-25% of the items on the Math 30-1 exam will be at the Standard of Excellence.

• approximately 20% of the items on the Math 30-2 exam will be at the Standard of Excellence.

• The Math 30-1 and 30-2 diploma exam blueprints use three “Mathematical Understanding” (cognitive level) categories:  Procedural, Conceptual, and Problem Solving.  The higher levels will be emphasized more than they were in Pure Math 30 and Applied Math 30:
• Procedural = 30%
• Conceptual = 34%
• Problem Solving = 36%

• Complete practice exams for Math 30-1 and 30-2 are now posted at Quest A+ (https://questaplus.alberta.ca/).

• Math 30-2 is intended as the course most students will take in high school.  They called it the “catch-all course.”  Math 30-1 is intended only for students who are interested in engineering or science at the university level.  Currently, the college has just 5 Math 30-2 registrations and 28 Math 30-1 registrations.  85% of our students are destined for careers in engineering or science?

• Many instructors asked about specific aspects of the textbooks.  If there is a conflict between a term or method employed by the textbook and the Program of Studies, the resolution will be noted in the Information Bulletin or Achievement Standards document.  I will post more information about the relationship between the approved resources for Math 30-1 and 30-2, the Program of Studies, and the diploma exams in a later post.

Regards,
Michael Gaschnitz
References
van der Linden, W. J.  (2011).  Test Design and Speededness.  Journal of Educational Measurement, 48, 44-60.