GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT BEST PLUS
What proficiency levels does BEST Plus assess?
BEST Plus measures performance over the full range of English proficiency levels represented in adult education programs: from Beginning ESL Literacy to High Advanced in the National Reporting System (NRS), and Student Performance Levels (SPLs) 0-10.
For more information about the National Reporting System, visit their Web site. For more information about the Student Performance Levels, click here.
What information is included in the full BEST Plus score report?
In addition to the BEST Plus score and National Reporting System and Student Performance Levels, the score report contains the date and time of the test, the name of the test administrator, and general information about how the examinee has been scored on the three components of the scoring rubric: Listening Comprehension, Language Complexity, and Communication. All score reports can be viewed through the Score Management Software on the BEST Plus Test CD.
What type of language is assessed?
Oral English language from personal, community, and occupational domains is assessed using real-life communication tasks such as providing personal information, describing situations, and giving and supporting an opinion.
How are examinee responses scored?
Examinee responses are scored according to the BEST Plus Scoring Rubric, which is based on current research in second language oral proficiency assessment. Each response is scored on three subscales:
Listening Comprehension: How well did the examinee understand the setup and question?
Language Complexity: How did the examinee organize and elaborate the response? (i.e. simple words and phrases to organized examples, explanations, descriptions, etc.)
Communication: How clearly did the examinee communicate meaning?
The required 6-hour BEST Plus training workshop covers scoring in detail.
How long does BEST Plus take to administer?
The computer-adaptive version takes from 3 to 20 minutes to administer, depending on the examinee’s level of oral proficiency. Higher proficiency speakers (SPL 7-10) usually take longer than lower proficiency speakers do because they are asked more questions and their responses tend to be longer and more complex.
The print-based version takes 5 to 20 minutes to administer.
My program has been using the BEST oral interview. Can we keep using this assessment?
For the past 25 years, the Basic English Skills Test (BEST), developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), has served as a reliable assessment of English language proficiency for adult education programs in the United States. The BEST has been widely used by adult ESL programs across the country for accountability purposes under the National Reporting System (NRS).
Many programs that have used the BEST oral interview are now using BEST Plus as their assessment tool for NRS reporting. CAL encourages all programs that are currently using the BEST oral interview to transition to BEST Plus as CAL has discontinued distribution of materials for the BEST oral interview.
The NRS will continue to accept BEST oral interview scores for reporting purpose until June 30, 2008.
The BEST Literacy Skills Section of the BEST has been updated and is now available as BEST Literacy .
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For more information
about BEST Plus or training workshops, Shop for BEST Plus products
online 24 hours a day The development of BEST Plus was funded by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), U.S. Department of Education, Contract # ED-00-CO-0130. |
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