ABSTRACT
This study evaluates the extent of development, quality assurance and pilot testing of parallel test items for beginning reading. This study was conducted in Holy Family Angelicum School, Incorporated, Kananga 1 District, Leyte Division with fifteen (15) teachers as members of the quality assurance team from the school and one expert from the district and the fifteen (15) learners were involved. To attain quality assured and field-tested individualized lesson plans, the researcher utilized the validation tools prescribed by DepEd Regional Memorandum No. s2021-577, s. 2021 entitled, “Format Template and Guidelines on the Submission of Finalized Division Contextualized Learning Resources (DCLRs)”. The validation tools cover from the development of individualized lesson plans which includes the content, format, presentation and organization and accuracy and up-to-datedness of information. Based on the findings of the study, the developed parallel test items for beginning reading were found to be generally compliant with the established criteria in terms of content, format and design, and field-testing validation results as evaluated by both teachers and learners. The results revealed a very high extent of compliance, indicating that the test items were appropriate, relevant, visually organized, and acceptable for use among beginning readers. The positive evaluations from teachers and learners suggest that the materials effectively support reading assessment through clear instructions, engaging activities, appropriate illustrations, and learner-friendly presentation. However, despite the highly satisfactory quantitative results, the qualitative findings under the language component revealed the need for revisions in terms of clarity and alignment. This suggests that some words, phrases, instructions, or sentence structures may still be too complex, ambiguous, or insufficiently aligned with the comprehension level of beginning readers. The result highlights the importance of ensuring that assessment materials use simple, concise, and developmentally appropriate language to maximize learner understanding and minimize confusion.
Keywords: Development, Quality Assurance, Pilot Testing, Parallel Test Items, Beginning Reading
INTRODUCTION
Early childhood education plays a crucial role in the development of foundational literacy skills, particularly in beginning reading. Reading is considered one of the most essential competencies that young learners must acquire during their early years of schooling. It serves as the foundation for future academic success, as reading ability influences learners’ comprehension, vocabulary development, and overall learning across subject areas. For preschool and early primary learners, the acquisition of beginning reading skills such as letter recognition, phonemic awareness, word identification, and basic comprehension is critical for their academic progression.
Teachers in early childhood education settings are responsible not only for facilitating literacy instruction but also for assessing learners’ reading development. Effective assessment tools enable teachers to monitor learners’ progress, identify learning difficulties, and provide appropriate interventions. However, many early literacy assessments used in schools may not always undergo rigorous processes of test development, quality assurance, and validation, which may affect the reliability and accuracy of the results. In educational measurement, well-developed tests must demonstrate validity, reliability, and consistency in measuring the intended learning outcomes.
One approach to improving the reliability and fairness of assessment tools is the development of parallel test forms. Parallel test forms refer to two or more versions of a test designed to measure the same skills or competencies with equivalent difficulty levels and content coverage. These test forms contain different sets of items but yield comparable results when administered to the same group of learners. According to research in educational measurement, the development of parallel forms allows educators to conduct repeated assessments while minimizing practice effects and maintaining measurement consistency (Salkind, 2010). Parallel tests are especially useful in monitoring students’ progress over time and ensuring fairness in assessment.
The process of developing parallel test items requires careful planning and systematic procedures. Initially, test developers must create a large pool of items aligned with the learning objectives and competencies being assessed. These items are then reviewed through quality assurance processes, including expert validation, item analysis, and reliability testing. Through pilot testing, researchers can determine the clarity, difficulty level, discrimination index, and overall reliability of each test item. The results of pilot testing help refine the test instruments before they are used in actual classroom assessment.
Studies have highlighted the importance of ensuring the comparability and reliability of parallel test forms in reading assessments. For example, Lunrasri, Tangdhanakanond, and Pasiphol (2023) analyzed the statistical parallelism of reading literacy instruments and found that parallel test forms can provide consistent measures of learners’ reading ability when the items demonstrate similar levels of difficulty, discrimination, and reliability. Their study confirmed that carefully constructed parallel reading tests can produce comparable scores across different test forms, making them useful tools for educational assessment.
Similarly, research on parallel forms reliability indicates that alternate forms of a test can be used to measure the same construct while maintaining consistency in results. In psychometric testing, the reliability of parallel forms is often evaluated by administering different test versions to the same group of respondents and examining the correlation between their scores (Salkind, 2010).
Other studies have also emphasized the importance of reliability and pilot testing in the development of assessment tools. Hanus (2014) found that parallel test forms used in curriculum-based measurement for early learners demonstrated reliability coefficients ranging from .76 to .94, indicating strong consistency in measuring students’ academic readiness.
As a preschool teacher in a private school, the researcher has observed that assessing beginning reading skills among young learners can be challenging due to variations in learners’ developmental readiness and the limited availability of validated assessment tools specifically designed for early literacy. In many cases, teachers rely on teacher-made assessments that may lack systematic processes of development and validation. This situation highlights the need for carefully developed test instruments that can reliably measure learners’ reading skills and provide accurate information for instructional planning.
The development, quality assurance, and pilot testing of parallel test items for beginning reading can therefore contribute to improving classroom assessment practices in early childhood education. By ensuring that test items are reliable, valid, and appropriate for young learners, educators can obtain more accurate information about learners’ reading abilities and design appropriate interventions to support literacy development.
This study seeks to examine the extent of development, quality assurance, and pilot testing of parallel test items for beginning reading to establish a reliable assessment tool that can be used by preschool teachers in monitoring learners’ literacy progress. The findings of this research may contribute to improving early literacy assessment practices and supporting teachers in making data-driven instructional decisions.
This study evaluates the extent of development, quality assurance and pilot testing of parallel test items for beginning reading in Holy Family Angelicum School, Incorporated, Kananga 1 District, Leyte Division. The findings of the study were basis for the proposed improved parallel test items.
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