Test development and Validation: Bedfordshire Academic Reading Test (BART)

Funded by the Steel Trust, the team developed and validated the Bedfordshire Academic Reading and Reading-into-Writing Test (BART) to provide a diagnostic assessment of all incoming students' academic reading abilities.

This project focused on the development of diagnostic tests of academic reading and writing for newly arriving students. The project was prompted by shifts in the demographic makeup of UK university populations. The widening participation agenda and the recruitment of significant numbers of international students mean that students arrive with diverse educational backgrounds and varying levels of academic skills. If students are to succeed in their academic studies and maximise the personal benefit from their studies, universities must identify those students, both domestic & international, who need support with academic reading and writing. Such identification needs to take place at the earliest possible opportunity following entry to the university to ensure they are offered the best chance of addressing any problem areas.

The project developed and piloted multiple versions of BART and BART-W. The tests are relatively short, less than 2 hours to take both papers, and the marking of papers is quick and efficient with robust and straightforward marking schemes. The reading test can be marked automatically online as soon as students complete it. The reading-into-writing test can be marked by course leaders/lecturers.
The tests categorise students into three groups: Needs comprehensive support / Needs some support / Needs no support in academic reading and academic reading-into-writing skills. The test scores are diagnostic in nature, and the scores identify students needing comprehensive support / some support or no support, with the scores in each sub-category indicating where any deficit lies.
For example, reading scores indicate:

1. ability to read carefully to extract an accurate understanding of the text
2. ability to connect information across texts: intertextual skills
3. ability to read quickly and selectively for main ideas

The Reading-into-Writing scores indicate writing ability relating to:
1. Relevance and adequacy of content (coverage of key points)
2. Organisation (cohesion and coherence)
3. Language (choice and control of lexis, grammar)