Week 8- The Assessment Process Flashcards
What is a basic explanation of Norm-Reference Assessments?
What a persons score is compared to the scores o other people.
How are Norms obtained?
By testing a clearly defined, standard, group and looking at the scores they obtain.
How do you work out where a person ranks among the Norm group?
By converting the raw score into a derived score.
What type of Norm Assessment is useful in achievement testing?
Age Norms.
What type of Norm Assessment is useful in testing the achievement levels of school children?
Grade Norms
What are Percentile Ranks (in Norm Assessment)?
The percentage of the norm group that earn the same or less than the person.
What are the 3 Benefits of having Norms?
- Provides information about the person’s level of functioning.
- Takes little time to administer for the amount of information obtained.
- Provides more information than could be obtained through just observation.
What are the 4 Cons of Norms?
- Norms are based on samples that DO NOT adequately represent the type of population to which the scores are compared to.
- Grade, and age norms, can be seen as saying that the person should perform at that level for the current test and also for other tests in other areas of function.
- Quickly out of date.
- Sample size needs to be adequate.
What are the three steps in developing Norms?
- DEFINE the target population
- SELECT the (representative) sample
- STANDARDISATION. This then generates the Norms.
What are the 4 ways in which we can evaluate the Norm Groups?
- REPRESENTATIVENESS of the group (i.e. Cultural Norms)
- DATE the norms were established
- SIZE of the norm group
- RELEVANCE of the Norms to the test taker
How large should the sample size of the Norm group be?
Over 100 but usually over 1000
Size of the Norm Group should be large enough to:
- Ensure stability of the test
2. Ensure inclusiveness
What are Criterion-Referenced Tests concerned with?
With what a person does, not how they compare with others.
What type of test assess’s the performance on a test in comparison to an established standard?
Criterion-Referenced Tests
What kind of test would you use to establish if a person can to can’t use Public Transport?
Criterion-Referenced Test
What test focuses on specific content domains?
Domain Referenced Tests
What are the benefits of Criterion-Referenced Tests?
It provides information that is relevant when making a decision like: i) Is the person is ready to go onto the next level. ii) Are there any sub-skills what need more attention?
What are the Cons of Criterion-Referenced Tests?
- Focuses on specific facts, not understanding
- Need to ask if the items fully represent the knowledge you want to assess?
- Puts performance in yes/no, black/white categories?
- Reporting results can be quite lengthy
What are the 4 steps when writing a Criterion-Referenced Tests?
- State the general objective.
- Task analyse the skill
- For each task write a test item.
- Decide on the level of success required for mastery of each component.