Abstract:
The Criterion-Referenced English Syntax Test (CREST) is a test of English Proficiency for English as a Second Language students at the high school level. It is intended for use as a pretest-posttest instrument to measure improvement after a program of instruction. There are three levels of the test, Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced, with the first two levels testing for 25 objectives and the last level testing for 15. Whichever level of test is chosen for the pretest must also be used for the posttest. All objectives are syntactic such as: Past tense of regular verbs, Modal auxiliaries, and Passive Voice. Items are multiple-choice with four response options, and are all of the sentence completion type. Test time is 80 minutes. Answers are recorded on hand-scoreable bubble sheets which are graded in the school. Mastery of an objective is achieved when 3 out of 4 items corresponding to that objective are answered correctly. Pluses and minuses are recorded on a score sheet to show which objectives have been mastered and which are still not mastered. Students who score extremely low on the Intermediate or Advanced version of the test should be tested again at the next lowest level. Internal Reliability was estimated using the Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 with reliability coefficients in the .90s for all levels. Validity was built into the test by basing items on instructional objectives used by the English as a Second Language program in the New York City Schools. 6,000 ESL students in 40 New York City schools were tested during the development phase of the test.