Relationship between School Based Tests’ Validity, Reliability and Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Research has shown that the flexibility of the continuous assessment tests makes it possible for teachers to develop tests without adhering to rules governing test construction. Such tests do not have a standard and a structured format and do not depict the contents stipulated in the entire curriculum. The tests are also prone to measurement errors, which greatly affect their reliability. This, therefore, constitutes the problem of the study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the reliability of school-based tests and students’ Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education performance in Kenya, and to establish measures that could be put in place to improve standards of the same tests. The objectives of the study were: to investigate teachers’ perception towards school-based mode of assessing students; to investigate reliability of the tests; to investigate teacher’s competence in test construction; to determine the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy tested in school-based tests. The study was guided by the Classical Test Theory. The researcher employed survey design to investigate the perception of teachers towards the school-based model of assessing students. The target population for this study was the secondary school teachers employed in Nairobi’s Public Secondary Schools. According to information from the Teachers Service Commission website, Nairobi County has 81 registered public secondary schools and 2025 registered secondary school teachers. Proportional Stratified Sampling was used to sample the number of Schools and students that participated in the study. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The researcher performed Pearson Moment Correlation to determine the degree of association between the dependent variable (KCSE performance) and independent variable (reliability and validity of tests). The study revealed that there was a negative association between school-based tests and KCSE performance. The numerical value representing the Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.473, the statistical value of a reliable test should be above 0. 6, this is a clear indication that the majority of the tests which were administered in the sampled schools were not that reliable. The study concluded that: the lower levels of the Bloom’s taxonomy (Knowledge & Comprehension) were mostly tested while the higher levels (Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation) were largely neglected, the majority of teachers seemed not to be competent in test construction since quite a number of them had not attended in service courses in test development and did not employ rules governing test construction This study recommends that the Ministry of Education should introduce in-service courses for teachers to enhance skills in test development. Such courses should give more attention to test construction skills