• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.601-615
• /
• 1998

Establishing and evaluating science education policies and revising and monitoring the effectiveness of science curriculum should be based upon the results of systematic and scientific research studies. Advanced nations have already been administering and developing national level science assessments for these purposes. The science assessments administered in Korea have been reported having many limitations and problems, and not succeeded in providing data for science education policy making and curriculum reform. The major purpose of the study is developing national level science knowledge assessment system in order to identify longitudinal trends of elementary and secondary school students science knowledge achievements. The research team consisted of science education experts and teachers from various school levels, decided the directions and major elements of national level science knowledge assessment with the consultation of educational evaluation experts. Item developing ability of the researchers was improved by seminars? and workshops on national assessment in advanced nations and developing skills of writing science items. Nearly 500 items were developed and revised. Pilot test was administered with 958 students at various school levels. 380 items were selected and tested with 8766 students, and the characteristics were analyzed in terms of item response theory. The target populations for national level science knowledge assessment are 5th-grade of elementary school, 2nd-grade of middle school, 1st and 2nd-grade of high school students. The proper period for the assessment is February every year. Multi-stage clustered sampling method is desirable and rotated forms are recommendable for the test format. Bridge items should be introduced to compare the results of multiple tests, and various grades. Anchor items should also be used for longitudinal interpretations of the results. The items for elementary school require low to medium abilities, for middle school and first grade of high school require medium to high abilities and for 2nd-grade of high school high abilities. The discrimination ability of the items developed is high.