please answer the questions in the attachment based on your reading.

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fundamental_issues_in_measurement_1.20.16_1.pptx

Fundamental Issues in Measurement

Advanced Measurement and Evaluation

January 20th, 2016

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Intelligence?

How does the environment shape intelligence?

How would you measure intelligence?

What type of decisions are made based on intelligence test results?

Decisions?

Measurement procedures aid in our decision-making process in education and psychology

Gathering information to make an informed decision.

Type of Measurement affects the decisions that we make.

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History of Measurement

Formal measurement procedures appeared in Western culture in the middle of the 19th century.

Joseph Rice, 1867; used uniform examinations to examine spelling achievement in Boston

Inform curriculum

Science of Psychology

Develop new ways of measuring human behavior

Ebbinghaus 1896 introduced fill in the blank

Development of the correlation, Sir Francis Galton and Karl Pearson

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Contexts of Decision-Making 19th Century

Mandatory School Attendance Laws

Objectivity and accountability in assessing student performance

Increase in the number of students from middle and lower socioeconomic background

Considered to be feeble-minded and unable to learn

Development of measurements methods and instruments to differentiate students with disabilities from students with lower socioeconomic status backgrounds.

Medical community~ abnormal behaviors

Behavioral and psychological measurements to classify and diagnose patients.

Business and Government agencies

Used for employment decisions.

Mental Measurement

Binet-Simon Scales

Measures complex mental processes

Identify students’ mental abilities

Thorndike

Measured school abilities

Nature of the measurement process

Creation of the scales to assess reading and mathematics.

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Early Period

Before World War I

Lewis Terman of Stanford University published Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (1916)

Introduction of the theory of..

reliability, inconsistencies in the measurement of human abilities.

G factor: single dimension of ability underlying human performance

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Boom Period (WW1)

Science of Psychology needed for Military expansion

15-year boom many innovations in the testing movement

Army Alpha (Verbal Test) and Army Beta (mazes and puzzles)

Army Alpha first to use multiple-choice tests

Woodworth Personal Data Sheet

First objective measure of personality

Measurement of vocational interests by E.K. Strong.

Measurement of attitudes and values by L.L. Thurstone.

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First Period of Criticism (1930s)

Increase confidence and expectations in mental measurement

Kuder Scales

Measuring vocational interests

Wechsler Scales

Factor Analysis (Thurstone’s)

Mental Measurements Yearbook (Oscar Buros)

Critical Reviews of mental tests

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The Battery Period (1940s)

Identification of different types of dimensions and abilities.

Use of testing in military programs.

Widespread use of nationally developed, commercially prepared tests.

Increased use of tests by business, industry, and the civil service system.

Increased use of psychological tests in mental institutions.

First APA guidelines on test development.

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Second Period of Criticism (1960s)

Increased concern about the use of ability and personality tests in public education and industry.

Concern about discrimination against women and minorities.

Age of Accountability

Federal Support of Compensatory Education: Title I

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965

Largest federal program of assistance to elementary and secondary education.

Programs or services to help children at risk for academic failure

A Nation at Risk (1983 ) (National Commission on Excellence in Education)

School-level accountability

Externally mandated tests were utilized as a major instrument for education reform.

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Age of Accountability Cont’d

NCLB act of 2001

Reauthorization of the ESEA of 1965

Extensive testing requirements apply to all public schools.

Variability among the states in terms of content standards.

States were required to submit plans justifying that their content and performance standards are challenging

Types of Decisions

Instructional

Decisions made by teachers and school psychologists.

Curricular

Change in curriculum

Selection

College acceptance or job

Placement or classification

Gifted or tracking programs

Personal

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In-Class Activity

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Measurement and decisions.

Values in Decision-making

People make decisions

Facts and values

Test scores only give facts

Values may conflict with facts

Measurement also guides theoretical decisions.

*How much we value the decision making process.

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Steps in the Measurement Process

Identifying and defining the attribute.

Measuring a quality or attribute of the thing or person.

Ex. Motivation of a preschooler, length of a table, etc.

Deciding which attributes are relevant.

Choosing the right attributes to describe

Measure traits that are relevant to the decisions being made.

Steps in the Measurement Process

Determining operations to isolate and display the attribute.

Constructs may be combinations of attributes.

Smaller constructs creating a larger construct. i.e. (intelligence as a global construct).

Operational definitions

How are we measuring the attribute?

Ex. Achievement: Measured by scores on DCAS, Self-esteem, measured by scores on the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.

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Steps in the Measurement Process

Quantifying the attribute.

Advantages of quantification

How much of the attribute is present in the person or thing.

Communication and precision

Scales are rules for assigning numbers

Defining the unit (inches, pounds)

Determining equal units

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Current Issues in Measurement

Testing Minority Individuals

Publishers work to ensure that items do not present an unfair challenge to women or members of ethnic or linguistic minority groups.

Should all children have the same educational objectives

Measured through achievement tests

Motivation to do well on tests

Measurement of aptitude; what students can do.

Monitor student progress and flexibility

Current Issues in Measurement Cont’d

Invasion of Privacy

Amount of private information

Record keeping

How should information be used?

normative comparisons

Criterion vs. norm-referenced interpretations for decision making.

Other factors that influence scores

Extraneous Factors (nutrition, anxiety, motivation)

Effects of coaching on test performance and relationships between examiner and examinee.

Rights and responsibilities of test takers.

Standards for educational and psychological testing

APA website; set of guidelines

AERA and high stakes testing

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