Investigating the validity and reliability of Stride’s diagnostic tests

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Fahsai

Stride is AQA’s new adaptive assessment offering diagnostic tests for GCSE Maths preparation. This study evaluates validity and reliability by trialling Stride multiple times, collecting user-experience surveys, and interviewing students from a range of schools. Findings show the tests accurately gauge proficiency across abilities, distinguish skill levels, and match appropriate difficulty. Evidence also supports validity across test content, internal structure, and student response processes, while reliability is rated excellent or good.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Executive summary

Introduction

Adaptive diagnostic design

Research objectives and validity evidence

Concept map and learning pathway structure

Investigating the validity and reliability of Stride’s diagnostic tests Yaw Bimpeh, Lead Researcher, AQA Executive summary Stride is AQA’s new adaptive assessment, providing diagnostic tests to help students prepare for GCSE Maths . This study investigated the validity and reliability of the diagnostic tests by trialling Stride multiple times, administering user-experience surveys and interviewing students from a range of schools. The research provided valuable insights into the reliability of the information about students’ knowledge and skills, as well asthe accuracy of inferences drawn from the diagnostic tests. The findings indicate that the tests accurately gauge students’ proficiency across a wide spectrum of abilities and effectively distinguish between individuals with varying levels of skill. Additionally, the difficulty level of the tests appears to align appropriately with the abilities of the students, ensuring accessibility for all individuals within the tested group. Moreover, there is ample evidence supporting the validity of the diagnostic tests in relation to test content, internal structure and student response processes. The reliability of the tests is rated as excellent or good, indicating the suitability 1 Investigating students’ experiences of piloting Stride of the tests for diagnostic or formative purposes. The results also indicate that items in the tests have varying levels of power to distinguish between individuals with high and low abilities, ie certain items are more effective at distinguishing than others. When asked about their overall test-taking experience, most respondents (78%) rated it positively. About 73% of respondents said they agreed with Stride’s identification of their strong points or competencies. According to 75% of respondents, tests like these would be beneficial for their learning. This research underscores the significance of Stride’s ability to deliver personalised and adaptive feedback to students, including explanations, hints, and resources tailored to individual learning needs. The testing process is helpful for both students and teachers and is effective at tracking students’ progress over time. This study accompanied qualitative research to gather student experiences of trialling the tests.1 Introduction The focus of this work was to evaluate Stride’s adaptive diagnostic tests, which employ learning objectives, cognitive mapping and a range offactors – such as competency, metacognition and self-awareness – to precisely assess each learner’s areas of weakness and strength. The Stride platform provides personalised and adaptive feedback to students, including explanations, hintsand remediation resources tailored to individual learning needs. It also offers teachers real-time analytics and reports on student performance to quickly identify gaps in a student’s understanding of fundamental maths concepts. This can help teachers to tailor their instruction and interventions. A key objective of Stride is to help students to reach their full potential in GCSE Maths, potentially improving results and saving teachers valuable time. Each of the diagnostic tests is underpinned by one of five key concepts: numbers, algebra, proportions, graphs, and shapes. Research was carried out to evaluate how well these key concepts align with maths teachers’ pedagogical practice and students’ learning and understanding. A qualitative strand of research gathered and analysed data on user feedback relating to the platform and its use in the classroom. This report describes how empirical evidence was used to assess the validity and effectiveness of the diagnostic tests in identifying a student’s areas of strength and weakness. The study investigated the system’s ability to: • differentiate between students of differing ability levels • provide consistent and dependable information about students’ knowledge and skills • demonstrate concurrent validity with math

FAQs

What is the purpose of Stride’s diagnostic tests?

Stride provides adaptive diagnostic tests that help students prepare for GCSE Maths by identifying areas of strength and weakness and delivering personalised feedback.

How was validity and reliability of the diagnostic tests evaluated?

The study trialled Stride multiple times, administered user-experience surveys, and interviewed students from a range of schools to examine test accuracy and consistency.

What did the study find about the tests’ effectiveness?

The tests were found to accurately gauge proficiency, distinguish between different skill levels, align difficulty with student abilities, and support validity and strong reliability for diagnostic or formative use.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Fahsai