Pilot and Standardisation Studies

Before test items are used nationwide for educational monitoring, they must be thoroughly trialled. This includes examining how challenging the tasks are for different groups of children and whether they can be completed and evaluated effectively. To this end, the IQB conducts pilot studies, administering several hundred test items to a large group of students. The results allow the test items to be reviewed in detail, and ensure they are optimised before being used in the main surveys.

Standardisation studies also provide an important foundation for educational monitoring. In these studies, a large set of finalised and thoroughly piloted test items is administered to a nationally representative sample of students. Standardisation studies form the basis for the development of proficiency level models.