Needs assessment and formative evaluation in the development of a college-level English second language placement test

Instructional design and test development models converged in the development of a valid placement test for college level students in English second language courses in Quebec. The realities of instructional design within the context of budget cuts and time constraints often result in the curtailment of the needs assessment and formative evaluation phases of design. The development of the placement test relied heavily on these two essential phases of instructional design despite constraints. The needs assessment and formative evaluation phases provided the necessary insights for the production of a test that corresponds to the learning objectives of the curriculum and the expectations of the test users. Adhering to these models provided the framework for the test design and ensured that the test items produced for the large scale field testing were functioning well in terms of their level of difficulty and their ability to discriminate. This thesis deals with the needs assessment that led to the development of items for a placement test and the formative evaluation of both the individual items and the test itself. n = 299 and n = 118, respectively.