1. Assessment and Individual
Differences
Sullivan Turner
EDTC 610/Fall 2010

2. Psychometric Model
Assumes that personal traits, including
knowledge and cognitive abilities can be
measured by weight and distance
Has tremendous power to influence life
decisions
Classify children as gifted, learning
disabled, or emotionally disturbed based
on test performance

3. Reliability
Replicability of a test score
True Scores and Observed Scores
• Perfect reliability is impossible
• Measurement Error
• True Score
• Observed scores
Observed Score = True Score ± Measurement Error

4. Reliability
Confidence Interval
• True scores will be within the
confidence level with a known level
of probability
Number of Items
• High reliability is desirable
• Increase number of questions to
boost test reliability

5. Validity
Is concerned with the meaning of what is
measured
A completely valid test measures fully and
accurately what it is intended to measure

6. Validity
What Does the Score Mean?
• Construct Validity: concerned with
whether a test measures what it is
intended to measure.

7. Validity
What Does the Score Mean?
• Concurrent Validity: evidence that a test
measures a distinct construct within a
theoretical system.
• Predictive Validity: predicts test
performance

8. Validity
Construct Under – Representation
• Means a test falls short of representing
all that is intended to construct
Construct Over – Representation
• Whenever a test measures something
other than the construct that it is
intended to measure.

9. Validity
Construct Over – Representation
• Measurement Contamination
• Response - elimination strategy
• Testwiseness
• Test anxiety

10. Validity
Measurement Variance: Variation in test
scores among examinees can be expressed
quantitatively
s2 = Σ (X – X)2
n–1

11. Validity
Measurement Variance
• Construct – Irrelevant Variance
• Every test is contaminated
• Response eliminated strategy used in
multiple choice testing

12. How Test Influence Learning
Washback Effects: Anticipation of test
consequences can feed back to influence the
processes of learning and teaching that lead up
to the test.
• Teaching to the Test
Measurement Driven Instruction
• Minimal Competency testing
• Consequential validity

13. Performance Assessment
Assessment
• Asking for complex responses/diagnostic
information
Performance Assessments
• Educational value “teaching to the test”
Authentic Assessments
• Leads to products and outcomes with
intrinsic value

14. Classroom Assessment
Everyday Assumptions of Testing
Designing Tests
• Multiple – Choice Question
• Constructed Response Items
1. Scoring rubrics
2. Holistic scoring
3. Analytical scoring

15. Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
• Summarize the effects of past
educational experience
Formative Assessment
• Guide and match ongoing teaching and
learning experiences
Assessment of Learning
• Promotes student learning

16. Standardized Testing
Raw score
• Point value given on a particular test
Normal Distribution
• Mean
• Mode
• Standard Deviation
Standard Scores
• Percentile rank

17. Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research
• Emphasize detailed description rather
than numerical measurement
Quantitative Research
• Emphasizes numerical measurements of
constructs
Descriptive Analysis
• States factual information

18. Attitude Interactions: ATIs
Common intuition that different students
learn under different conditions.
Aptitude
• General cognitive ability
Treatment
• Identifiable educational experience
Interaction
• Matching treatment to aptitude

19. Diversification of
Instruction
Cognitive Styles
• Field dependence vs field independence
• Impulsivity vs reflectivity
Learning Styles
• Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory
• Time and Learning
• Mastery Learning

20. Group Differences
Gender Differences
Socioeconomic Differences
Racial – Ethnic Differences
• The Achievement Gap
• Test Bias

21. Learning Strategies
Increase the number of test items
Use a full representation of the
construct
Widen the process dimension of
test design
Use a variety of testing formats
Use performance assessment

22. Learning Strategies
Be cautious about learning styles
Consider aptitude- treatment
interactions
Give learning sufficient time
Guard against test bias
Close the achievement gap