Chapter 13: Testing in Schools Flashcards
What are three things that preschool assessments determine?
Readiness of the child to enter school
Identification/diagnosis of conditions that my present special educational challenges
Assessment of the child’s abilities
What are the three objectives of preschool assessments?
- Screening of children at risk
- Diagnostic assessment to determine the presence of absence of a particular condition, often for the purpose of establishing eligibility for placement in special programs, as well as to formulate intervention
and treatment recommendations - Program evaluation – where the test results are used to document and evaluation specific programs
Review brief history
Public Law (PL) 94-142 – mandated the professional evaluation of children age 3 and older suspected of having physical or mental disabilities in order to determine their special educational needs (mid
1970s)
PL 99-457 – obligation extended downward to birth (1986)
* Starting with the 1990-1991 school year, all disabled children from ages 3 to 5 will be provided with free, appropriate education.
PL-105-17 – gave greater attention to diversity issues (1997)
* Infants and toddlers with disabilities must receive services in the home or other natural settings, and continued in preschool programs
In 1999, ADHD was officially listed under “Otherwise Health Impaired” as a disabling condition that can qualify a child for special services
What are some issues with testing preschoolers?
- Language and conceptual skills emerge but are not
advanced enough to be assessed using traditional tests. - The attention span of a preschooler is short.
- Motivation in the child may vary from one test session to the next.
Curriculum Based Assessment
- Observe and record a student’s performance on a set of activities
- There are several different ways to accomplish this
- Some methods take a general approach
o Determine the learning components of a learning
construct
o Select a wide variety of tasks or items to assess
the learning components
o Example:
Spelling is the learning construct
Select words from the list of words students are expected during the course of the school year
Assess how well the student has mastered the skill
Some methods take a more specific approach
o Determine whether a student has attained proficiency with one
particular aspect of the curriculum
o Breaks down the global learning outcomes into a set of specific
subskills
o Example:
Spelling is the learning construct
Select the specific skill of words ending with a silent e
Ask the students to spell words that fall within the specific skill
Assess how well the student has mastered the specific skill
5 Assessment Approaches
- Interview parents and teachers (most widely used)
- Behavioral Observational (most valuable)
- Rating scales completed by the parent and/or teacher (quick and inexpensive)
- Projective techniques (limited use with young children)
- Traditional tests normed on children of the same age
Psychometric tests
Piagetian-Based Scales
Should be used for classification and placement decisions, but not to determine a child’s level of cognitive development and ability
- Piaget’s stages of development
Measures a child’s cognitive levels in accord with - Comprehensive Developmental Assessment Tools
Checklists based on normal child development - Process-Oriented Assessment Approaches
Assumes identification of cognitive strategies is
necessary to understand cognitive performance
Other Issues
- How equivalent are the instruments?
- Reliability is low
- Need other test forms for children with special requirements
- Assess “readiness” in terms of social and emotional skills
California Achievement Tests (CAT)
Assessment in the Primary Grades
- Determine which specific skills have mastered or not
- Compare students’ performance with that of a national sample
Interrelationship of subtests
* High intercorrelations between subtests (.50 - .80)
Reliability is satisfactory
Only content validity has been focused on
Fall and Spring norms are provided
California Achievement Tests (CAT): Locator Tests
Use of locator tests – gives the student a short 20-item version of vocabulary and math items to see what level a student is at, then can administer the full test
Scores are comparable across grades
To minimize boredom or discouragement it is a “locator test” meaning the child’s performance can be used as a guideline on which level to administer
California Achievement Tests (CAT): Lake Wobegon Effect
schools are reporting that there students are
scoring above-average
Schools are comparing results with old norms
Norms rise over time because students learn more
HIGH SCHOOL: Social Competence
- Development of the scale
- Reliability was satisfactory
- Validity
- Compared scores with popularity ratings
Cavell and Kelley (1994) developed a self-report measure of social competence for adolescents
Students described situations that did not go well
yielded 157 problem situations
Rated the situations on a 5-point Likert scale for frequency and difficulty
Factor analysis yielded 7 labels:
1. Keep friends (friends shares your secret)
2. Problem Behavior (want to drink alcohol)
3. Siblings (embarrassed you)
4. School (mean teachers)
5. Parents (nosy)
6. Work (dislike but need it)
7. Make Friends (peers dislike)
Each are scored on frequency and difficulty
Tests of General Educational Development (GED): five types of tests
High school equivalency test
Five tests
1. Writing skills
2. Social studies
3. Science
4. Reading skills
5. Mathematics
Tests of General Educational Development (GED)
Reliability and Validity
Reliability is satisfactory
Content validity is built in
Concurrent validity
* Test is also give to high school students which shows it is more stringent
* Fairly high intercorrelations between tests
Predictive validity
* Difficult to assess
* Graduates do report increases in pay, acceptance into training programs, and other benefits
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Designed to measure the distribution of proficiencies in national student populations
Wide range of school subjects
Given on a variable time table
The NAEP is a Congressionally mandated survey of American students’ educational achievement; it was first conducted in 1969, annually through 1980, and biennially since then.
The goal of the NAEP is to estimate educational achievement and changes in that achievement over time, for American students of specific ages, gender, and demo- graphic characteristics
The NAEP is designed to measure the distribution of proficiencies in student populations.
covers a wide range of school subject areas such as reading, mathematics, writing, science, social studies, music, and computer competence
