Assessment Flashcards
Student Data Profile
A means of collecting data on students in schools, especially academic and behavioral data, that can also help bring to light trends or issues students may be facing (e.g. discipline referrals or absences that could or are leading to academic decline)
Process Data
Data about the intervention: Who attended, when, how often, etc. Example: 20 students attended an hour-long study skills group once a week for six weeks. No information about results; just the process.
Perception Data
Specifically about the intervention’s immediate impact on the participants, or how well they grasped the content. An example is a pre- and post-test on the information covered in the session. This can be useful to measure effectiveness of a single lesson/activity, and it can help a counselor make adjustments throughout the process to hone in on the areas kids are missing.
Outcome Data
Focuses on the broader impact on the student’s performance in school. Comparing two groups, one who participated in the intervention and one who did not, to see whose attendance numbers were better OR to see if attendance numbers/discipline referrals/etc. changed as a result of the intervention. It takes participation in an activity (process data) and the changes in attitudes/competencies/knowledge (perception data) to see if it has an impact on the broader goals of the school, like graduation rates, etc.
Correlation Coefficient
This tells us how strong of a correlation there is between two variables (e.g. an achievement test and an intellectual ability test).
Range between -1.0 and +1.0. A score of 0 = no correlation at all. A +1.0 = perfect positive (as one score goes up, so does the other), and a -1.0 is a perfect negative correlation).
Standard Deviation
Tells you how far a data set is from the mean. In other words, it tells us if the numbers in a data set are all pretty close together (and the standard deviation is small) or if the numbers in a data set vary greatly (and the standard deviation is large). This tells us more about the actual data set than just looking at the mean. It is a measure of variability – tells us how much the numbers vary from each other.
Internal Consistency Coefficient
How well a test measures a construct among its test items. It ranges from negative infinity to positive one. +1 is a perfect score and has a strong connections between the test items.
Psychological Assessment
Tells you something about yourself. Tell you about your skills and abilities, including your intelligence and what types of things you’re good at.
Projective Test
Involve showing images to a person and asking them to interpret the images.
Inventory-Type Test
Surveys that try to measure a person’s characteristics or attitudes, such as Myers Briggs or MMPI
Aptitude Test
Measure what you are capable of doing, like ACT or SAT. They cover more general skills.
Achievement Test
Measure what you have learned or retained from a specific topic or area.
Predictive Validity
How well the test can predict future impact on the test-taker (e.g. someone who scores well on an exam in 7th grade is more likely to go to college)
Concurrent Validity
Measuring the test against a similar test that is already known to be valid
Construct Validity
How well an assessment measures what it is said to measure. E.g. Does the BAI measure anxiety accurately?
