Transcript Standardized Tests

Standardized Tests
Standardized Tests
• Standardized tests are commercially published
tests most often constructed by experts in the
field.
• They are developed in a very precise fashion,
and have specific instructions for both
administration and scoring.
• These instructions are supposed to be
followed exactly by everyone who administers
the tests.
Standardized Tests
• Confusion may exist concerning the definition
of standardized tests. In the past, the term
standardized referred mainly to normreferenced tests
• However, a standardized test mayor may not
be norm-referenced.
• We consider a test to be standardized if it is a
published test with specific instructions for
administration and scoring.
Standardized Tests
• NORM-REFERENCED TESTS
• Although not all standardized tests have
norms, most do.
• Norms are average scores for a given group of
students, which allow comparisons to be
made among different students or groups of
individuals.
Standardized Tests
• The norms are derived from a random sampling of a
cross-section of a large population of individuals.
• Norm-referenced tests are used to help teachers learn
where their own students stand in relation to others in
the class, school system, city, state, or nation.
• Although a child may be doing average work in a
particular class, the child may be above average when
compared to other norms.
• Similarly, it is possible for a child to be doing above
average work in a particular third-grade class but to be
below average compared to all third-graders in the
nation.
Standardized Tests
• LIMITATIONS OF NORM-REFERENCED MEASURES
• 1. The measure may be inappropriate for use
with some groups or individuals. It might be too
hard for some and not challenging enough for
others.
• 2. Allocated time limits may be unrealistic, which
means that the scores of students who work
slowly but with precision are most likely not
accurate.
Standardized Tests
• 3. Items may sample breadth of reading rather
than depth, which results in a superficial view
of the student's reading behaviors.
• 4. Administering the test in a group setting
might invalidate the results in that children
who fail to understand the directions may be
unable to answer any of the items they
actually know.
Standardized Tests
• 5. The test format limits the kinds of items
used. Multiple-choice formats are often used
and these do not measure some reading
behaviors appropriately.
• 6. Norm-referenced tests generally provide an
overestimate of the students appropriate
instructional reading level.
Standardized Tests
• Teachers must be cautious when they use
these tests.
• In addition to the limitations mentioned
above, teachers must use the three
assessment questions to determine whether a
test is appropriate for their students
• What do I want to know?
• Why do I want to know?
• How can I best discover this information?
Standardized Tests
• Another important factor concerns the students
themselves.
• Students who feel comfortable, alert, well-fed, rested,
and highly motivated are better prepared to perform at
their best.
• Such factors do affect test performance.
• Teachers want to administer tests under the best
possible circumstances.
• Good teachers remind students and parents before a
test that students need to sleep well, eat breakfast, pay
attention, and expect to do well on a test.
Standardized Tests
• Standardized tests are often referred to as high-stakes
tests.
• The term "high-stakes“ implies undesirable
consequences for those who fail.
• Performance benchmarks for these tests are usually
determined by policy, not by students' needs.
• While evaluation and interpretation is out of the hands
of teachers, the results are often used to reward or
penalize students, teachers, and schools.
• Without a doubt, the political use of high-stakes testing
data affects the lives of students and teachers.
Standardized Tests
• Reading Survey Tests and General
Achievement Tests.
• The major difference between the two types
of tests is that a standardized reading survey
test, such as the Gates-MacGinitie Reading
Tests, only measures reading and therefore
can be omewhat more comprehensive.
Standardized Tests
• TEST SCORE TERMINOLOGY
• There are many potentially confusing terms
test makers use in discussing standardized
achievement tests.
• Following is a guide to some of the terms
teachers will probably encounter at one time
or another.
Standardized Tests
• Raw Score
• The raw score is the number of items that a
student answers correctly on a test.
• The raw score is usually not reported because
it does not convey meaningful information.
• Test makers use the raw scores to derive their
scale scores.
Standardized Tests
• Standard Scores
• Standard scores are used to compare test takers'
assessment scores.
• They are presented in terms of standard
deviations .
• If the standard deviation is large, it means that
the scores are more scattered in relation to the
mean.
• Conversely, if the standard deviation is small, the
scores are more clustered around the mean."
Standardized Tests
• Standard Deviation
• Measurement experts like to work with standard
deviations because they feel that they produce
more accurate appraisals of a student's scores in
relation to others, and they are exceptionally
helpful in understanding test results.
• For example, on one test, the standard deviation
is 10, and the mean or average of all the scores is
100.
Standardized Tests
• Two students take the two different tests.
• Student A scores 110 on one test and Student
B scores 105 on the other test.
• Even though the students have different
scores, they both have scored one standard
deviation above the mean.
• The 110 score is therefore equivalent to the
105 score.
Standardized Tests
• The same logic would apply to tests with
different means.
• It is beyond the scope of this book to discuss
the various kinds of standard scores that exist.
Standardized Tests
• Normal Curve
• Many teachers are familiar with the bellshaped symmetrical curve (normal curve) in
which the majority of scores fall near the
mean (average) of the distribution, and the
minority of scores appear above or below the
mean.
Standardized Tests
• Grade Equivalent
• A grade equivalent is a description of the year
and month of school for which a given
student's level of performance is typical.
• A grade equivalent of 6.2 on the Terra Nova
California Achievement Test (CAT) is
interpreted as the score that is typical of a
group of students in the third month of the
sixth grade.
Standardized Tests
• (September is designated as month .0, October as
.1, November as .2, December as .3, and so on up
to June, which is .9.)
• These scores are useful in the elementary grades
because fairly regular gains are expected in basic
skill development at each grade level.
• Extreme grade equivalents, those that are more
than two years above or below grade level, must
be interpreted with great caution because they
are based on "extrapolations“ rather than actual
student performance.
Standardized Tests
• A very low or a very high score just means that
the student scored far below or far above the
national average.
• A grade equivalent score of 6.6 by a thirdgrader does not mean the third-grader is able
to do sixth-grade work or should be in the
sixth grade.
• It does mean that this student is scoring well
above the average for third-grade students.
Standardized Tests
• Percentile
• A percentile is a point on the distribution below
which a certain percent of the scores fall.
• A test score equivalent to the 98th percentile
means that the student's score is higher than that
of 98 percent of others who took the test.
• Remember that the 50th percentile score is the
middle score, or the median; it is the point above
and below which half of the students scored.
Standardized Tests
• Likewise, remember that percentile and percent
correct are not the same.
• A percentile score of 75 on an achievement
• test by a fifth-grader means that the fifth-grader
obtained a score higher than 75 out of every 100
students in a representative sample of fifthgraders in the nation who took the test.
• A student might get 60 percent of the test items
correct and still be in the 75th percentile.
Standardized Tests
• CRITERION-REFERENCED TESTS
• Criterion-referenced reading tests are based on
an extensive inventory of reading objectives.
• These tests are designed to help teachers learn
about students' specific strengths and needs.
• Teachers use them to gain more information
about students' various skill levels.
• The information they get from the test is used in
conjunction with other valid assessment data to
plan appropriate instruction.
Standardized Tests
• Criterion-referenced tests are considered
standardized if they are published tests that
have been prepared by experts in the field and
have precise instructions for administration
and scoring.
• They can be administered individually or to a
group, and they can be teacher-made or
standardized.
Standardized Tests
• Criterion-referenced tests are concerned
primarily with mastery of predetermined
objectives, which are based on content material.
• On criterion-referenced tests, an individual is
supposed to compete only with himself or
herself.
• While there may be very little difference in
appearance between a norm-referenced test and
a criterion-referenced test, differences do exist in
the objectives of the tests.
Standardized Tests
• For a criterion-referenced test to be valid, a content
domain must be specified.
• The test items must be representative of the content
domain.
• Test makers identify various content area domains and
write measurable objectives within each domain.
• They develop detailed item specifications to ensure
detailed measurement of the skills stated in the
objectives.
• Usually, there are several items written for each
objective.
Standardized Tests
• Criterion-referenced tests are not normbased; however, as odd as it may sound,
"criterion-referenced tests and normreferenced tests are no longer seen as a strict
dichotomy."
• When a criterion-referenced test has equated
norms, it mean that "the scores on one test
have been statistically matched to the scores
on a normed test."
Standardized Tests
• Some test makers are including a "cutoff or
passing score" with criterion referenced tests,
perhaps because the term criterion implies a
benchmark for performance.
• With a criterion-referenced interpretation of
scores, the focus is on what students can do
and the comparison should be to a content
domain, not to other students.