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Applied Measurement in Education

Four decades of research have shown that students’ low test-taking effort is a serious threat to the validity of score-based inferences from low-stakes, group-based educational assessments. This meta-analysis sought to identify effective interventions for improving students’ test-taking effort in such contexts. Included studies (a) used a treatment-control group design; (b) administered a low-stakes group-based educational assessment; (c) employed an intervention to improve test-taking motivation; and (d) evaluated test-taking effort and/or test performance as outcomes. The analysis included 53 studies (N = 59,096) that produced 60 and 105 effect sizes of test-taking effort and test performance, respectively. On average, interventions were found to improve test-taking effort and test performance by 0.13 standard deviations (SD) each. The largest gains in test-taking effort were observed when providing external incentives followed by increasing test relevance, while no significant differences were found betwee...

Improving Test-Taking Effort in Low-Stakes Group-Based Educational Testing: A Meta-Analysis of Interventions