By using the ATLAST student and/or teacher assessments developed by Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), you agree to abide by the stipulations below concerning use, test security, test administration, and citations.
Use of ATLAST Assessments
The teacher assessments may be used to gauge growth in knowledge about a specific content area as a result of an intervention such as professional development, curriculum use, or mentoring. They may also be used to learn about the contribution of teacher knowledge to student knowledge and classroom instruction. Similarly, the student assessments may be used to gauge growth in knowledge about a specific content area as a result of instructional experiences.
We ask you to abide generally by the standards put forward in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA/APA 1999).
You may not use these assessments to evaluate individual teachers or students. Assessment results may not be associated with any high-stakes consequence such as tenure, pay, hiring, or grades. The assessments were not developed for making decisions/judgments about individual teachers or students.
You should also refrain from using these measures to publicly demonstrate teachers’ ability or lack of ability in science, which may adversely affect teacher willingness to participate in future studies. Specifically, this includes not publishing raw frequencies or number correct.
You may not sell the assessments or charge a fee for their use.
IRB and/or District/School Study Approval
It is your responsibility to obtain proper IRB and/or the appropriate district/school approval for your study and to follow the necessary requirements for obtaining principal, teacher, parent, and/or student permission/approval to administer to the assessment(s).
Responsibilities to Teachers and Students
Your responsibilities to participating teachers and students will largely be dependent upon the details of the IRB and/or district/school approval for your study. In most cases, completion of the assessment will be strictly voluntary. As such, participants should be informed of the voluntary nature of the study. Data collection for the assessment should be confidential, and teachers and students should be assured of that. To encourage a high response rate among teachers, it may be helpful to:
- Clearly explain what the data will be used for and why the data are important for your study;
- Explain that there are no high-stakes consequences associated with completing the assessment;
- Offer compensation for time spent outside of the regular school day completing the assessment or, in the case of the student assessments, for administering the assessment.
Test Security
ATLAST assessments may NOT be shared without prior authorization from HRI. Anyone who reviews or administers the teacher and/or student ATLAST assessments must agree to abide by the following requirements. (HRI acknowledges that, in some cases, school administrators may require that the test materials be reviewed prior to granting permission for students to take the test. Such a review is not considered a violation of this Test Security Policy as long as the other provisions of this policy are not violated.)
- Test materials must not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any fashion, either mechanically or electronically. Reproduction of test materials without proper permission represents a violation of copyright law.
- Test instruments must not be released to any persons who are not directly associated with HRI’s ATLAST project.
- Actual test instruments must not be used, in original or in copied form, to provide test-taking practice, to enhance test-taking skills, or for any other purpose.
- Test items, actual or similar, must not be used for discussion, review, or for any other purpose.
Citing ATLAST Assessments
When using ATLAST assessments/items and in any writing in which data from HRI’s ATLAST assessments/items are included, use the following citation:
The assessment was developed by the Assessing Teacher Learning About Science Teaching (ATLAST) project at Horizon Research, Inc. ATLAST was funded by the National Science Foundation under grant number DUE-0335328.