Consequential research of accountability testing: the case of the CET

Abstract

This article examines the changes taken place over the decades after a test-based accountability system was in place and proposes an agenda for consequential research of the testing program. The article starts with a review of theories of test-based accountability (Supovitz, Journal of Educational Change 10:211–227, 2009) and a socially grounded, integrated approach to test validation (Chalhoub-Deville, Language Testing 33:453–472, 2016; Chalhoub-Deville and O’Sullivan, Validity: Theoretical development and integrated arguments, 2020). Following Supovitz’s frameworks of accountability testing, the case of the College English Test (CET), a national English language testing program in China, is analyzed to explain the nature of the consequences of accountability testing and show the motivational effects, alignment effects, the informational role and the symbolic values of the accountability testing program. The case analysis highlights the importance of investigating consequences of an accountability test at the aggregate and the system levels. Guided by Chalhoub-Deville and O’Sullivan’s (Validity: Theoretical development and integrated arguments, 2020) integrated validity framework, the article delineates the claims for the theory of action argument and the communication engagement argument for future investigation of the consequences of the CET.

College English Test–Spoken English Test (CET-SET)

“…In the test, three test takers and two examiners formed a test group to complete three monologic tasks and a peer-to-peer discussion task. Since its first administration, the CET-SET has received an increasing amount of attention from college students and teachers in China (Jin & Chen, 2002). By 2012, a total of 58 CET-SET test centres had been established and more than a thousand examiners had been trained (Jin, 2022).…”