Development and Validation of Online English Tests for School Students in Uruguay

This was a multi-phased project that developed and validated English tests for primary and secondary school students in Uruguay. The series of projects was funded by the British Council Uruguay [Phases 1-2], Centro Ceibal Uruguay [Phases 3-4], and Research England, UK [Phase 5].

[Phase 1] CRELLA reviewed and analysed test data and made recommendations for revising the Uruguayan National English Adaptive Test (NEAT), a nationwide tablet-based assessment of vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening taken by around 70,000 students aged 9–15 in primary, secondary, and vocational schools.

[Phase 2] CRELLA redeveloped, validated, and CEFR-linked the NEAT, a nationwide tablet-based assessment of vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening taken by around 70,000 students aged 9–15 in primary, secondary, and vocational schools.

[Phase 3] Following the success of the NEAT redevelopment and validation project, CRELLA led the development of Uruguay’s nationwide tablet-based English speaking test for primary and secondary school students. CRELLA developed test specifications, sample tasks, rating scales, and examiner training guidelines, while collecting empirical data from two pilot studies. Multiple data sources were integrated to build a validity argument for the new test, which was also linked to the CEFR.

[Phase 4] CRELLA’s collaboration with the Uruguayan government continued to support the country’s educational reform efforts. CRELLA worked with Plan Ceibal, a governmental body in Uruguay, to further revise the listening test and conducted a second round of CEFR-linking panels.

[Project 5] Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), CRELLA also conducted a comparability study of the tablet-based and human-interlocutor versions of the speaking test.