Replicating a Validated CS1 Assessment (Abstract Only)

Validated assessments are important for teachers and researchers. A validated assessment is carefully developed to make sure that it is measuring the right things. Computing education needs more and better validated assessments. Validated assessments provide instructors with insight on how their students are doing in their class and provide researchers with insight on whether certain technologies and interventions are successful. Building high-quality, validated assessments is difficult. However, it is possible to replicate an existing validated assessment, and the new assessment can be validated against the original assessment. We need mechanisms to replicate assessments so that we can build more and more varied assessments for different audiences. We developed the Secondary CS1 Assessment (SCS1) as an isomorphic version of a previously validated assessment instrument for introductory computer science. In this poster we provide an overview for the process of replicating an existing valid knowledge assessment and validating the replication. Handouts will be provided with information about how to access and use the SCS1 Assessment.