week 3 discusion

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 11

Assessment for Education

11-2

The Role of Testing and Assessment

in Education • Response to Intervention (RtI)

– Specific learning disability: a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.

– A specific learning disability (SLD) was diagnosed if a significant discrepancy existed between the child’s measured intellectual ability and the level of achievement that could reasonably be expected from the child in one or more areas.

11-3

The Role of Testing and Assessment

in Education • Response to Intervention (RtI)

– In the mid-1970’s, the federal mandate to identify

and assist children with learning problems defined

a learning disability as a “severe discrepancy

between achievement and intellectual ability.”

– RtI model: a multilevel prevention framework

applied in educational settings that is designed to

maximize student achievement through the use of

data that identifies students at risk for poor

learning outcomes combined with evidence-based

intervention and teaching.

11-4

The Role of Testing and Assessment

in Education • Response to Intervention (RtI)

– The RtI model is multilevel because there are at

least three levels of intervention:

• Level 1: The classroom environment wherein all

students are being taught whatever the teacher is

teaching

• Level 2: A small group of learners who have failed to

make adequate progress in the classroom have been

segregated for special teaching

• Level 3: Individually-tailored and administered

instruction for students who have failed to respond to

the second level of intervention

11-5

The Role of Testing and Assessment

in Education • Response to Intervention (RtI)

– The RtI model aims to accelerate the learning

process for all students as well as identify students

with learning disabilities

– Implementation is often done according to a

problem-solving model, while some states and

districts rely on a general intervention policy

– Integrative assessment: a multidisciplinary

approach to evaluation that assimilates input from

relevant sources

11-6

The Role of Testing and Assessment

in Education • Dynamic assessment is an approach to

exploring learning potential that is based on a

test-intervention-retest model

– Budoff (1967, 1987) explored differences between

deficits identified by standardized tests that

appeared due to differences in education versus

mental deficiency

• The Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD)

was designed to yield information about the nature and

amount of intervention required to enhance a child’s

performance

11-7

The Role of Testing and Assessment

in Education • Dynamic assessment

– Zone of proximal development: the distance

between the actual developmental

level as determined by individual

problem-solving under adult

guidance or in collaboration with

more capable peers

• Vygotsky (1978)

11-8

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

11-9

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

11-10

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)

11-11

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

11-12

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

11-13

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)

11-14

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

11-15

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

11-16

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?

11-17

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

11-18

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

11-19

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

11-20

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

11-21

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”

11-22

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

11-23

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

11-24

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

11-25

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

11-26

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

11-27

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

11-28

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

11-29

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

11-30

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)

11-31

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