Chapter 11 PDF
Chapter 11 PDF
11-7
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Dynamic assessment
– Such procedures differ from traditional assessment
in several ways:
• Dynamic assessors do not remain neutral; instead, they
may do everything in their power to help the testtaker
master the material in preparation for retesting
• Variations may be introduced that help the testtaker
better understand or remediate the obstacles to learning
11-8
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Achievement tests: designed to measure
accomplishment
– In most educational settings, achievement tests are
used to gauge student progress toward instructional
objectives, compare an individual s
accomplishments to peers, and help determine
what activities might best propel the students
toward goals
– May be standardized nationally, regionally, or
locally, or not at all
– Scores may be put to a wide variety of uses 11-9
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Achievement tests
– Measures of general achievement may survey
learning in one or more academic areas
• Tests that cover a number of academic areas are
typically divided into several subtests and referred to as
achievement batteries
• e.g., Sequential Tests of Educational Progress (STEP)
battery; SRA California Achievement Tests; Wechsler
Individual Achievement Test–Third Edition (WAIT III)
11-10
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Achievement tests
– Measures of achievement in specific subject areas
• Most specific-subject achievement tests are teacher-
made, but there are many standardized instruments to
gauge achievement in standard areas
• At the elementary-school level, the acquisition of basic
skills (reading, writing, basic arithmetic) is emphasized
• At the secondary school level, one popular battery is the
Cooperative Achievement Test, consisting of a series of
separate achievement tests in diverse areas such as
English, social studies, and mathematics
• At the college level, such tests are usually in the form of
end-of-major outcomes assessments
11-11
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests tend to focus on informal
learning or life experiences rather than
structured learning, as is normally assessed in
achievement tests
– Also referred to as prognostic tests and are
typically used to make predictions, generally on a
broader fund of information and abilities
11-12
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the preschool level
– Aptitude during this time of development is
generally referred to as readiness
– At this level, such assessment is largely a matter of
determining whether a child s cognitive,
emotional, and social development is appropriate
for the child s age
– Checklists and rating scales are tools commonly
used with preschoolers
• e.g., Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL),
Connors Rating Scales–Revised (CRS-R), Behavior
Assessment System for children-2 (BASC-2)
11-13
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the preschool level
– CBCL has been designed for use with children
through young adults, ages 4 – 18
• Those with close relationships to the subject provide
information for competence items covering the
subject s activities, social relations, and school
performance
• The checklist also contains items describing specific
behavioral and emotional problems
• A syndrome may be defined as a set of co-occurring
emotional and behavioral problems:
– Anxious/Depressed; Withdrawn/Depressed; Somatic
Complaints; Social Problems; Thought Problems;
Attention Problems; Rule-Breaking Behavior; and
Aggressive Behavior
11-14
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the preschool level
– CRS-R can be used to screen for ADHD and other
behavior problems
– BASC-2 utilizes teacher and parent ratings to
identify adaptive difficulties on 16 scales ranging
from activities of daily living (ADLs) to study
skills
• A Self-Report of Personality (SRP) may also be
administered if the respondents are believed to have
sufficient insight into their own behavior
11-15
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the preschool level
– Psychological tests
• By the age of 2, children provide a unique challenge to
assessors in terms of evaluation and assessment
– Language and conceptual skills emerge, but are not
advanced enough to assess using traditional tests
– The attention span of a preschooler is short
– Motivation in the child may vary from one test to the next
• Tests such as the WPPSI-III and the SB5 may be used to
gauge developmental strengths and weaknesses, but
interpretation of these scores proves questionable at times
– What is the meaning of a score on an infant intelligence
test?
11-16
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the elementary-school level
– Children of the same chronological age may vary
widely in their abilities
– School readiness tests provide educators with a
measure to assess an incoming student s abilities
– Metropolitan Readiness Test (sixth edition;
MRT6) is a test battery that assesses the
development of the reading and mathematics skills
important in the early stages of formal learning
11-17
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the secondary-school level
– Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) consists of a
number of tests:
• A multipart test referred to as the SAT (containing
measures of reading, writing, and mathematics)
• SAT subject tests
– The SAT developers claim that SAT scores,
combined with a consideration of high school
GPA, yields the best available predictor of
academic success in college
• Understandably, a great deal of controversy surrounds
this statement
11-18
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the secondary-school level
– American College Testing Assessment (ACT) is a
curriculum-based college entrance exam, wherein
scores may be predictive of creativity as well as
academic success
– Some evidence suggests that the ACT and the SAT
scores were highly correlated with general
intelligence
11-19
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the college level and beyond
– Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)
• An entrance examination for college students seeking
graduate school admission
• Contains a General Test form and several subject tests
– The General Test contains verbal, quantitative, and
analytical reasoning sections
• Many independent researchers have examined the test
with regard to psychometric variables
– Some evidence supports its utility, but other
evidence refutes such usefulness
11-20
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Aptitude tests at the college level and beyond
– Miller Analogies Test (MAT)
• A 100-item multiple choice analogy test that examines
the testtaker s ability to perceive relationships as well
as his or her general intelligence, vocabulary, and
academic learning
– Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
• Consists of four sections: Verbal Reasoning, Physical
Sciences, Writing Sample, and Biological Sciences
• One group of investigators examined the ability of the
MCAT to predict performance in medical school and
medical licensing exams and concluded that predictive
validity was impressive
11-21
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Diagnostic test: a tool used to identify areas of
deficit to be targeted for intervention
– Reading tests
• The Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised
(WRMT-III) is a paper-and-pencil measure of reading
readiness, reading achievement, and reading difficulties
• Other reading tests include the Stanford Diagnostic
Reading Test, the Metropolitan Reading Instructional
Tests, the Diagnostic Reading Scales, and the Durrell
Analysis of Reading Test
11-22
The Role of Testing and Assessment in
Education
• Diagnostic tests
– Math tests
• The Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test, Fourth
Edition (SDMT-4) is a standardized test that can
provide useful diagnostic insights with regard to the
mathematical abilities of children from preschool to
college age
• The KeyMath3-DA is a standardized test for
administration to children as young as 4 ½ to adults as
old as 21
• Both tests, and many others, help diagnose difficulties
with arithmetic and mathematical concepts
11-23
Psychoeducational Test Batteries
• Psychoeducational test battery: a test kit that
generally contains two types of tests: those that
measure abilities related to academic success
and those that measure educational
achievement
– Allow for normative comparisons as well as
individual evaluation of strength and weakness
11-24
Psychoeducational Test Batteries
• Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-
ABC)
– Designed for use with ages 2½ to 12 ½
– Subtests measuring both intelligence and
achievement are included, divided into two
subgroups reflecting the two kinds of information-
processing skills: simultaneous and sequential
skills
11-25
Psychoeducational Test Batteries
• Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-
ABC)
– Recommendations for teaching based on Kaufman
and Kaufman s (1983) concept of processing
strength can be derived from these test findings
• e.g., a student whose strength is sequential processing
should be taught using the guidelines for sequential
learners
11-26
Psychoeducational Test Batteries
• Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children,
Second Edition (KABC-II)
– Designed for use with ages 3 to 18
– The grounding in Luria s theory of sequential
versus simultaneous processing theory was
expanded
– A grounding in the CHC theory was added,
providing the examiner with a choice as to which
model of test interpretation was optimal for the
testing situation
11-27
Other Tools of Assessment in
Educational Settings
• Performance, portfolio, and authentic
assessment
– Performance assessment has historically referred
to any type of assessment that requires the
examinee to do more than choose the correct
response
• e.g., essay questions, research proposals
– Performance task: a work sample designed to
elicit representative knowledge, skills, and values
from a particular domain of study
11-28
Other Tools of Assessment in
Educational Settings
• Performance, portfolio, and authentic
assessment
– Portfolio assessment: a form of performance
assessment that refers to the evaluation of one s
work samples
– Authentic assessment: in an educational context,
an evaluation of relevant, meaningful tasks that
may be conducted to evaluate learning of academic
subject matter but that demonstrate the student s
transfer of that study to real-world activities
11-29
Other Tools of Assessment in
Educational Settings
• Peer appraisal techniques
– Peer appraisals can help call attention to an
individual who is experiencing academic, personal,
social, or work-related difficulties
– Peer appraisals allow an individual in charge to
view members of a group from the perspective of
those alongside the individual being evaluated
– The results of peer appraisals can be graphically
illustrated (e.g., a sociogram)
11-30
Other Tools of Assessment in
Educational Settings
• Measuring study habits, interests, and attitudes
– Academic performance is the result of a complex
interplay of a number of factors
– A number of tools have purported to examine these
factors:
• Study Habits Checklist
• What I Like to Do Interest Inventory
• Survey of School Attitudes
• Quality of School Life Scales
• Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes
• Study Attitudes and Methods Survey 11-31