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Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Selection of Assessment Tools. Council of Exceptional Children’s Professional Standards. All special educators should possess a common core of knowledge and skills related to assessment: Basic terminology used in assessment

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Chapter 3

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  1. Chapter 3 Selection of Assessment Tools

  2. Council of Exceptional Children’s Professional Standards • All special educators should possess a common core of knowledge and skills related to assessment: • Basic terminology used in assessment • Legal provisions and ethical principles regarding assessment of individuals • Screening, prereferral, referral and classification procedures • Use and limitations of assessment instruments • National, state, or provincial, and local accommodations and modifications

  3. Legal Guidelines for Assessment • Assessment is: • Nondiscriminatory • Focuses on educational needs • Comprehensive and multidisciplinary • Assessment tools are technically adequate and are administered by trained professionals • Rights of parents and students are protected

  4. Professional Guidelines • Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (1985) • Test publishers’ catalogs and manuals • Mental Measurements Yearbooks series • Tests in Print IV • ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (www.ericae.net)

  5. Evaluation Criteria • The tool must fit the purpose of the assessment • The assessment instrument must be appropriate for the student • The assessment instrument should match the skills of the professional using it • The assessment tool must be technically adequate • The assessment instrument should be efficient

  6. Measurement Terminology • Measurement scales may be: • Nominal • Ordinal • Interval • Ratio • Descriptive statistics include measures of: • Central tendency • Measures of variability • Correlation

  7. Evaluating Technical Quality of Assessment Tools • Age, grade, and gender of norm group members should match characteristics of the students assessed • Random selection is preferable • Norm group should be representative of the population and should be of adequate size • Test norms should be recent to reflect current standards

  8. Reliability • Test-retest reliability refers to consistency or measure from one administration to the next • Split-half reliability is concerned with internal consistency • Interrater or interobserver reliability is concerned with consistency among evaluators

  9. Validity • Content validity is the extent to which the instrument represents the content of interest • Criterion-related validity relies on an outside criterion and may examine predictive validity or concurrent validity • Construct validity examines the instrument and the theoretical construct it intends to measure

  10. Measurement Error • Related to variability and reliability of an assessment device • Standard error of measurement can be quantified

  11. Test Scores • Informal Measures • Frequency counts and percentages are interval data • Criterion-referenced tests yield nominal data • Rating scales provide ordinal data

  12. Norm-Referenced Test Scores • Age and grade equivalent are ordinal scores • Percentile rank scores • Standard scores use a set mean and standard deviation • Stanines represent a range of performance

  13. Normal Distribution

  14. Relationship Between Types of Scores

  15. Promoting Nonbiased Assessment • For students whose primary language is not English, tests and test directions should be translated into the home language • Interpreters may be used in the assessment of students who speak languages other than English • Culture-free and culture-fair measures attempt to minimize bias

  16. Promoting Nonbiased Assessment, continued • Culture-specific measures relate directly to specific cultures • Separate norms may be provided for students from diverse groups • Pluralistic measures assess a broad range of skills • Test administration procedures may be modified

  17. Promoting Nonbiased Assessment, continued • Dynamic assessment can be used to study the student’s learning ability • Standardized tests can be replaced with informal procedures • Standardized testing could be abolished

  18. Selection of Nondiscriminatory Assessment Tools • Norm groups should be representative of the race, culture, and gender of the student to be assessed • Tests containing items that reflect cultural bias should be avoided • The tools for assessment should minimize the effects of the disability

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