The test evaluating Luxembourgish listening comprehension is essentially based on the two sub-skills “identifying and applying information presented in a text” as well as “construing information and activating listening strategies”. The test provides different text forms (e.g. dialogues, radio broadcasts, tales or stories) dealing with familiar topics such as animals, nature, family or school. Texts and instructions are presented on CD.
The test evaluating mathematical skills in grade 1 is presented in Luxembourgish and contains tasks referring to the following areas of competency: “numbers and operations”, “space and shape” and “size and measurement”. To ease the understanding of provided tasks and to reduce the influence of reading comprehension, many illustrations as well as simple and precise instructions are used.
The test evaluating early literacy comprehension is primarily based on the skill “constructing and using written language units” which includes the sub-skills “phonological awareness” (e.g. identifying the initial sound of a word, identifying rimes and syllables), “visual discrimination” (e.g. finding differences between two or more images, finding or copying a word in a text) as well as “understanding of the alphabetic principle” (knowledge of letters, finding the first letter of a familiar word). The test is presented in Luxembourgish on CD.
The tests evaluating language and mathematical skills are drawn up by experienced elementary and secondary school teachers together with scientific staff from LUCET. New items are continuously developed for the ÉpStan every year. To validate the content, format and practicability of the newly developed test material, it must be tested on students at the relevant grade level. After the competence tests, therefore, a pre-test is arranged where students answer the new test material. Students’ performance in the pre-test is not included in the ÉpStan results and is not reported back, as the focus here is on the testing and the psychometric evaluation of the new items rather than on individual performance.