This page offers basic information about the Chico Unified School District Information Retrieval/Literacy with Analysis of Web Sites Proficiency Test. Please use the information and resources below for practice before you come to take the actual test.

Objective: 

Student will, given a research topic, locate, select, and evaluate five high quality information sources using a combination of online sources (one subscription database, one online news source, and three Web pages located through use of search engines.) 

Students will: 

1. Be given a research topic, along with a checklist of five evaluative criteria necessary for a thoughtful evaluation of the quality of the information sources (authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage).
2. Be informed that they will need to find high quality information sources (of the types listed in the objective above) that would be used as basic information for a report on a given topic.
3. Use computers connected to the Web (w/ CD-ROM databases if not available on the Web) to research the topic.
4. Complete an Information Literacy Evaluation Checklist for each of the information sources located and selected
5. The checklist will then be compared to the actual information source for accuracy.
6. Points assigned for each of the five criteria will be used to rate the quality of the information sources. 

Assessment Rubric: 

Exemplary

• All of the sources score 90% or above for criteria met.
• All five of the criteria are addressed for each of the sources.
• Checklists are filled out neatly, with critical thinking skills employed.
Competent
• All of the sources score 80% or above for criteria met.
• All five of the criteria are addressed, but not completely.
• Checklist is filled out completely, however, with minimal information.
Developing
• One or more of the sources score below 80% for criteria met. 
• Sites are not from web, CD/subscription databases, or a news source.
• Checklist is not complete.

1. Mankato, Minnesota Home Page

 
2. Beluga Whale Facts 

 
3. Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency 

 
4. Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (DMRD) 

 
5. Tass Report: Pol Pot Reconfirms Presence

 
6. The Godsend Institute: Human Cloning 

 
7. The First Human Male Pregnancy

 
8. Facts about Albert Einstein 

 
9. The True but Little Known Facts about Women and AIDS 

 
10. Feline Reactions to Bearded Men

1. The Adventures of Robin Hood

 
2. Today In History: The Pine Tree State

 
3. In a Twist, Professors Find War Affected Bush Votes 

 
4. A Cheerful guide to doing laundry 

 
5. Bon-Macy's Dirty Work: Seattle Janitors try to make work pay 

 
6. Keep Clinton Busy, Please, Hillary worries the ex-president will get bored  

 
7. New Housing Starts In the U.S.

 
8. Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web

 
9. When Nixon Met Elvis

 
10. Library/Information Literacy Standards 

1. The TWA Flight 800 Shootdown

 
2. The Oklahoma Bombing: Witnesses Allege Government's Prior Knowledge

 
3. The Truth About "Martin Luther King, Jr."

 
4. The Causes and Effects of Racial Violence

 
5. The Tragedy of Two Lost Women 

 
6. Bartleby Unbound : Bartleby, the Scrivener

 
7. Critique of Auschwitz photo of two women allegedly leading a troop of kids 'to the gas chambers' 

 
8. Breck's Book Reviews: The Stand

 
9. Tapping Kennedy's Metaphor

 
10. Biological Differences Between the Races

Click here if you would like to see:
 
1. An example of a typical Information Retrieval/Literacy with Analysis of Web Sites Proficiency test, including acceptable pages (MS Word Document).  Here it is in the Adobe Acrobat format (Requires Adobe Acrobat). 

 
2. The Grading Rubric which is used to score the test. Here it is as an MS Word document and also in Adobe Acrobat format (Requires Adobe Acrobat). 

 
Please note: The checklist that you will use for the test is provided directly below.
The Computer Skills proficiency checklist below is also available as an MS Word file, which can be printed out and used for your proficiency examination.

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The Internet is full of information; some is credible and some is misinformation.  One of the skills you must acquire is how to evaluate a web page to determine if the information is credible. This test will help you find out how well you are able to locate and select credible information. Complete the form below for each of the five information sources that you have located and selected. 

Student Name: _______________________________________                   Student ID Number: _____________________

Graduation Year: _________  School:  (Circle current school)      CHS    PVHS     FVHS     CAL

Note: If the information requested is not available, write "N/A" in the space or next to the criterion.

Bibliographic Citation/WorkCited:

1.  Who (what person/s) authored/wrote the page? 

2.  With what organization/publisher is the page affiliated? 

3.  Title of the Web page: 

4.  What is the URL/location for the site?  http://

5.  What is the domain name of the site?  (Circle one) .com     .gov    .org    .net     .edu

6.  Date the page was created/published:                                      Date you accessed the page: 

     Score: _____ (Number correctly completed)

Criterion #1: AUTHORITY (Circle Y for Yes and N for No) Score:  _____ (Number of "Yes" Responses)
Y  N  1. Is it clear who wrote the information?
Y  N  2. Are the author's qualifications for writing on this topic clearly stated? 
Y  N  3. Is there a link to a page (or area on it) describing the purpose of the sponsoring/publishing organization? 
Y  N  4. Is there a phone number or postal address to contact for more information? (email address not enough). 

Criterion #2: ACCURACY (Circle Y for Yes and N for No) Score:  _____ (Number of "Yes" Responses)
Y  N  1. Are the sources for any factual information clearly listed so they can be verified in another source?
Y  N  2. Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and other typographical errors? 
Y  N  3. Is the information accurate, when compared to other sources?

Criterion #3: OBJECTIVITY (Circle Y for Yes and N for No) Score:  _____ (Number of "Yes" Responses)
Y  N  1. Is the information reasonably unbiased?
Y  N  2. Is the information free of advertising? 
Y  N  3. If there is any advertising on the pages, is it clearly set off from the informational content? 

Criterion #4: CURRENCY (Circle Y for Yes and N for No) Score:  _____ (Number of "Yes" Responses)
Y  N  1. Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was written or last revised? Dates: _________
Y  N  2. Are there any indications that the information is kept current or updated? 

Criterion #5: COVERAGE (Circle Y for Yes and N for No) Score:  _____ (Number of "Yes" Responses)
Y  N  1. Does this page cover the information in-depth, adequately? 
Y  N  2. If there is a print (e.g., magazine, newspaper, book) equivalent to the Web page, is it clear whether the entire work,
              or only parts of it are available on the Web site? 

Total Correct or Yes Responses to pass: _____  (18 required for Exemplary; 16 required for Competent.)

Proficiency Form Revised October 2000