Content
One of the most common distinctions made among tests relates to whether they are measures of typical behavior (often non-cognitive measures) versus tests of maximal performance . A measure of typical behavior asks those completing the instrument to describe what they would commonly do in a given situation. Measures of typical behavior, such as personality, interests, values, and attitudes, may be referred to asnon-cognitive measures. A test of maximal performance, obviously enough, asks people to answer questions and solve problems as well as they possibly can. Because tests of maximal performance typically involve cognitive performance, they are often referred to as cognitive tests. Most intelligence and other ability tests would be considered cognitive tests; they can also be known as ability tests, but this would be a more limited category.
In practice, values of the discrimination index will seldom exceed .50 because of the differing shapes of item and total score distributions. ScorePak® classifies item discrimination as “good” if the index is above .30; “fair” if it is between .10 and.30; and “poor” if it is below .10. Items should be supportable facts or qualified opinions, not unqualified opinions. For selected-response items, there should be an unarguably correct answer. If more than one option could possibly be correct, the directions should call for the best answer, rather than the correct answer.
As noted above, in such cases it is important for assessors to include a statement about this situation whenever it applies and potential implications on scores and resultant interpretation. Different cognitive tests are also considered to be speeded tests versus power tests. A truly speeded test is one that everyone could get every question correct if they had enough time. Some tests of clerical skills are exactly like this; they may have two lists of paired numbers, for example, where some pairings contain two identical numbers and other pairings are different. Pure power tests are measures in which the only factor influencing performance is how much the test-taker knows or can do.
Difficulty and Discrimination Distributions
Tests that traditionally were group administered werepaper-and-pencil measures. Often for these measures, the test-taker received both a test booklet and an answer sheet and was required, unless he or she had certain disabilities, to mark his or her responses on the answer sheet. In recent decades, some tests are administered using technology (i.e., computers and other electronic media). There may be some adaptive qualities to tests administered by computer, although not all computer-administered tests are adaptive (technology-administered tests are further discussed below).
Memorization of obscure facts is much less important than comprehension of the concepts being taught. Trivia, on the other hand, should not be confused with “core” knowledge that is the foundation of a successful education. Examples of “core”, nontrivial knowledge include multiplication facts, common formulas, and common geographic names. Since items are the actual points of interaction of students with the test, item quality is probably the most recognizable indicator of the overall quality of the test. High quality test items take time and effort to write, but are essential to a valid test. Items must test skills and knowledge of the subject at hand, not the student’s test taking skills.
Words related to test
The inclusion of validity testing, which will be discussed further in Chapters 4 and 5, in the test or test battery allows for greater confidence in the test results. Standardized psychological tests that are appropriately administered and interpreted can be considered objective evidence. As noted previously, the most important distinction among most psychological tests is whether they are assessing cognitive versus non-cognitive qualities. In clinical psychological and neuropsychological settings such as are the concern of this volume, the most common cognitive tests are intelligence tests, other clinical neuropsychological measures, and performance validity measures. Many tests used by clinical neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, technicians, or others assess specific types of functioning, such as memory or problem solving.
The norm may be established independently, or by statistical analysis of a large number of participants. So, for example, a subtest referred to as “listening” which has respondents answer oral questions by means of written multiple-choice responses is testing reading as well as listening. The NCLEX-PN examination test plan includes an in-depth overview of the content categories along with details about the administration of the exam as well as NCLEX-style item writing exercises and case scenario examples. The NCLEX-RN examination test plan includes an in-depth overview of the content categories along with details about the administration of the exam as well as NCLEX-style item writing exercises and case scenario examples.
Test Fairness in High-Stakes Testing Decisions
Formative assessments are informal and formal tests taken during the learning process. These assessments modify the later learning activities, to improve student achievement. They identify strengths and weaknesses and help target areas that need work. The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching definition of test item and by students to improve their learning. Finally, standardized tests are sometimes used to compare proficiencies of students from different institutions or countries. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development uses Programme for International Student Assessment to evaluate certain skills and knowledge of students from different participating countries.
Test Report means a written report issued by The Sequoia Project that documents the outcomes of the Testing Process; that is, the Applicant’s compliance with the Specifications and Test Materials. Test item useDocumenting each use of test item on a record form allows a running check to be kept. Major grammatical errors might be considered those that either interfere with intelligibility or stigmatize the speaker. Minor errors would be those that do not get in the way of the listener’s comprehension nor would they annoy the listener to any extent. Matters of style, such as the use of a passive verb form in a context where a native would use the active form (e.g., Question – “What happened to the CD I lent you, Jorge?” Reply – “The CD was lost.” vs. “I lost your CD.”).
Classifying Items
In fact, interpreting tests results without such knowledge would violate the ethics code established for the profession of psychology . SSA requires psychological testing be “individually administered by a qualified specialist … currently licensed or certified in the state to administer, score, and interpret psychological tests and have the training and experience to perform the test” (SSA, n.d.). Most doctoral-level clinical psychologists who have been trained in psychometric test administration are also trained in test interpretation. Given the need for the use of standardized procedures, any person administering cognitive or neuropsychological measures must be well trained in standardized administration protocols. He or she should possess the interpersonal skills necessary to build rapport with the individual being tested in order to foster cooperation and maximal effort during testing. Additionally, individuals administering tests should understand important psychometric properties, including validity and reliability, as well as factors that could emerge during testing to place either at risk.
They are commonly employed in educational institutions as part of the physical education curriculum, in medicine as part of diagnostic testing, and as eligibility requirements in fields that focus on physical ability such as military or police. Throughout the 20th century, scientific evidence emerged demonstrating the usefulness of strength training and aerobic exercise in maintaining overall health, and more agencies began to incorporate standardized fitness testing. In the United States, the President’s Council on Youth Fitness was established in 1956 as a way to encourage and monitor fitness in schoolchildren. In a test that has items formatted as multiple-choice questions, a candidate would be given a number of set answers for each question, and the candidate must choose which answer or group of answers is correct. The first family is known as the True/False question and it requires a test taker to choose all answers that are appropriate. The second family is known as One-Best-Answer question and it requires a test taker to answer only one from a list of answers.
- Content-referenced, or criterion-referenced, scores measure students according to mastery of learning standards.
- Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to individual test items in order to assess the quality of those items and of the test as a whole.
- It is important to clearly understand the population for which a particular test is intended.
- Cognitive tests are often separated into tests of ability and tests ofachievement; however, this distinction is not as clear-cut as some would portray it.
- France adopted the examination system in 1791 as a result of the French Revolution but it collapsed after only ten years.
- By using the internal criterion of total test score, item analyses reflect internal consistency of items rather than validity.
To convert the values of item difficulty to determine the test-taker’s ability scores one needs to have some common items across various tests; these common items are known as anchor items. Using such items, one can essentially establish a fixed reference group and base judgments from other groups on these values. Cultural equivalence refers to whether “interpretations of psychological measurements, assessments, and observations are similar if not equal across different ethnocultural populations” (Trimble, 2010, p. 316). Cultural equivalence is a higher order form of equivalence that is dependent on measures meeting specific criteria indicating that a measure may be appropriately used with other cultural groups beyond the one for which it was originally developed. Trimble notes that there may be upward of 50 or more types of equivalence that affect interpretive and procedural practices in order to establish cultural equivalence. As part of the development of any psychometrically sound measure, explicit methods and procedures by which tasks should be administered are determined and clearly spelled out.
Make sure that the essay question is specific enough to invite the level of detail you expect in the answer. A question such as “Discuss the causes of the American Civil War,” might get a wide range of answers, and therefore be impossible to grade reliably. A more controlled question would be, “Explain how the differing economic systems of the North and South contributed to the conflicts that led to the Civil War. It is important to clearly understand the population for which a particular test is intended. Norms enable one to make meaningful interpretations of obtained test scores, such as making predictions based on evidence.
Item Discrimination
Table 3-1 highlights major mental disorders, relevant types of psychological measures, and domains of functioning. For sensory, perceptual, or motor abilities, one may be altering the construct that the test is designed to measure. In both of these examples, one could be obtaining scores for which there is no referenced normative group to allow for accurate interpretation of results.
For example, you might note that the majority of the questions that demand higher levels of thinking skills are too difficult or do not discriminate well. You could then concentrate on improving those questions and focus your instructional strategies on higher-level skills. To determine the difficulty level of test items, a measure called the Difficulty Index is used. This measure asks teachers to calculate the proportion of students who answered the test item accurately. By looking at each alternative , we can also find out if there are answer choices that should be replaced. For example, let’s say you gave a multiple choice quiz and there were four answer choices .
For example, if one uses a language interpreter, the potential for mistranslation may yield inaccurate scores. Use of translators is a nonpreferred option, and assessors need to be familiar with both the language and culture from which an individual comes to properly interpret test results, or even infer whether specific measures are appropriate. The adaptation of tests has become big business for testing companies, and many tests, most often measures developed in English https://globalcloudteam.com/ for use in the United States, are being adapted for use in other countries. Such measures require changes in language, but translators must also be knowledgeable about culture and the environment of the region from which a person comes . Psychometrics is the scientific study—including the development, interpretation, and evaluation—of psychological tests and measures used to assess variability in behavior and link such variability to psychological phenomena.
The Intellectual Operation Required
Subjective – A free composition may be more subjective in nature if the scorer is not looking for any one right answer, but rather for a series of factors .
If content-referenced tests are a better measure of mastery of learning goals, why aren’t they used exclusively? Every test type, format, and scoring system has advantages and disadvantages. However, unlike formal essays, essay exams are usually written in class under a time limit; they often fall at particularly busy times of the year like mid-term and finals week.
Matching Type Test Advantages and Disadvantages
Sometimes subjective scores may include both quantitative and qualitative summaries or narrative descriptions of the performance of an individual. Questions on both achievement and ability tests can involve eitherrecognition or free-response in answering. In educational and intelligence tests, recognition tests typically include multiple-choice questions where one can look for the correct answer among the options, recognize it as correct, and select it as the correct answer. A free-response is analogous to a “fill-in-the-blanks” or an essay question. One must recall or solve the question without choosing from among alternative responses. This distinction also holds for some non-cognitive tests, but the latter distinction is discussed later in this section because it focuses not on recognition but selections.
The brief overview presented here draws on the works of De Ayala and DeMars , to which the reader is directed for additional information. Mean score differences taking into consideration the spread of scores within particular racial and ethnic groups as well as among groups. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. The important thing is that the right answer is not a trick and that it can be interpreted easily. In some cases it is good to have responses that match several premises.
Obvious, but triple-check to make sure each response can only work for one premise. Determine the Discrimination Index by subtracting the number of students in the lower group who got the item correct from the number of students in the upper group who got the item correct. For Question #1, that means you would subtract 4 from 4, and divide by 5, which results in a Discrimination Index of 0. Note that the students are arranged with the top overall scorers at the top of the table. The teacher or oral test assessor will verbally ask a question to a student, who will then answer it using words.
Content-referenced tests are preferred when determining a student’s level of content-mastery because they only measure mastery of what students should already know. Objective-answer tests can be constructed to require students to apply concepts, or synthesize and analyze data and text. Provide a small collection of data, such as a description of a situation, a series of graphs, quotes, a paragraph, or any cluster of the kinds of raw information that might be appropriate material for the activities of your discipline. Then develop a series of questions based on that material, the answers to which require students to process and think through the material and question significantly before answering. While all tests reflect what is valued within a particular cultural context (i.e., cultural loading), bias refers to the presence of systematic error in the measurement of a psychological construct.
Classroom teachers may create content-referenced tests to use as a diagnostic test, or pretest, before learning takes place to create learning goals for a segment. Informal content-referenced assessments may be used periodically throughout a learning segment as checks for understanding to inform teachers about which material needs to be retaught and which objectives have been mastered. Teachers may also use content-referenced tests as a summative assessment at the end of the unit to evaluate students. A number of factors can affect the reliability of a test’s scores. In addition, changes in subjects over time and introduced by physical ailments, emotional problems, or the subject’s environment, or test-based factors such as poor test instructions, subjective scoring, and guessing will also affect test reliability. It is important to note that a test can generate reliable scores in one context and not in another, and that inferences that can be made from different estimates of reliability are not interchangeable .