The idea of using low-stakes assessment results is often mentioned when designing educational system reforms. However, when tests have no consequences for the students, test takers may not make enough effort when completing the test, and their lack of engagement may negatively affect the validity of the conclusions of the studies that use such tests. This article presents analyses of student test-taking engagement in a low-stakes international large-scale assessment, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and (i) quantifies test-taking effort, (ii) predicts effort by means of expectancy-value proxies and (iii) investigates the relationship between effort and science proficiency. Students’ response times on the science items of PISA 2015 were used to derive an index of test-taking effort. Data from six English-speaking countries that administered the computer-based version of the test, were selected. The response time for each item was modelled by means of a two-class finite mixture model, and students’ probabilities of being classified as effortful were combined to derive a global index of effort. Our findings showed that students’ effort decreased towards the end of the testing sessions. The variance of examinees’ test-taking effort was not substantially explained by the expectancy-value variables. Test-taking effort had a strong relationship with science achievement, with the correlation increasing to more than 0.5 towards the end of the test. Moreover, an important part of the relationship between test-taking effort and achievement is not related to other student characteristics, such as gender, socio-economic and cultural status, attitude towards school or attitude towards science. This study shows that students put different amounts of effort into test taking, especially towards the end of the assessment, and suggests a possible underestimation of related student achievement that may affect the interpretation of test scores.

中文翻译：

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低成绩评估中的学生考试努力：来自PISA 2015科学考试英文版的证据

在设计教育制度改革时，经常提到使用低风险评估结果的想法。但是，如果测试对学生没有影响，则应试者在完成测试时可能不会付出足够的努力，而他们缺乏参与度可能会对使用此类测试的研究结论的有效性产生负面影响。本文介绍了对低水平国际大规模评估中的学生应试活动的分析，《国际学生评估计划》（PISA），以及（i）量化了应试工作，（ii）通过期望来预测工作量值代理；（iii）研究努力与科学能力之间的关系。使用学生对PISA 2015科学项目的响应时间来得出参加考试的努力指数。选择了六个以计算机为基础的英语国家的数据。通过两类有限混合模型对每个项目的响应时间进行建模，然后将学生被归类为“努力”的概率相结合，以得出总体努力指数。我们的研究结果表明，在测试阶段即将结束时，学生的努力有所减少。期望值变量并没有实质性地解释应试者参加考试的努力的差异。参加考试的努力与科学成就密切相关，在考试结束时相关性增加到0.5以上。此外，应试努力与成就之间关系的重要部分与其他学生特征（例如性别，社会经济和文化地位，对学校的态度或对科学的态度。这项研究表明，学生在参加考试时会付出不同的努力，尤其是在评估即将结束时，并建议可能会低估相关学生的成绩，这可能会影响考试成绩的解释。