Base+group+6+(vecchio,meagher,green)

Chapter 13 Part 1 (Nicole) Nicole Meagher Ch 13 p 281-292 Making Sense Out of Standardized Test Scores grade -> 4. 5 <-month of school year Things to keep in mind
 * Teachers need to be able to not only interpret their own assessments but the results of various standardized tests as well.
 * The importance of interpreting standardized tests in order to base classroom instructional decisions as well as to adequately answer parent’s questions.
 * Standardized tests are “either designed to yield norm-referenced or criterion referenced inferences” which are “administered, scores, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner” (282).
 * “Almost all nationally standardized tests, whether focused on the measurement of students’ aptitude or achievement, are chiefly intended to provide norm-referenced interpretations” (282).
 * Traditionally standardized tests were limited to selected-response but recently developers have attempted to use constructed- response questions.
 * It is important when making a test to avoid vague language.
 * In order to better see if students understood the test you gave them finding the mean and median score can be of assistance.
 * A helpful way to describe the variability of scores is to establish the range (subtracting lowest score from highest).
 * Standard deviation is also a good way to establish variability but requires more scores than it does to establish the range.
 * Standard deviation is “the average difference between the individual scores in [a] group of scores” (284).
 * Test scores can be interpreted in both absolute and relative terms.
 * To interpret absolutely you “infer from the score what it is that the student can or cannot do” (285).
 * To infer relatively you “infer from the score how the student stacks up against other students who are currently taking the test or who have already taken the test” (286).
 * “Percentiles are used more frequently in describing standardized test scores because percentiles are readily understandable to most people” (286).
 * Percentiles compare “a student’s score with those of other students in a norm group” (286).
 * “In many instances, local norms are different from national norms because the students in a particular locality are not representative of the nation’s children as a while” (287).
 * “Grade-equivalent scores constitute another effort to provide a relative interpretation of standardized test scores” (288).
 * “A grade equivalent is an indicator of student test performance based on grade level and months of the school year” (288). Example 4.5
 * “Grade-equivalent scores are most appropriate for basic skills areas such as reading and mathematics where it can be assumed the degree of instructional emphasis given to the subject is fairly uniform from grade to grade” (288).
 * The appeal of these scores is that “they appear to the readily interpretable to both teachers and parents” (288).
 * “Because substantial sampling and estimation errors are apt to be present, grade- equivalent scores…are, at best, rough estimates” (290).
 * “A scale score constitutes yet another way to give relative meaning to a student’s standardized test performances” (291).
 * “Scale scores are being employed with increasing frequency these days to report results of national and state-level standardized programs” (291).
 * These scores can be used to “permit longitudinal tracking of student’s progress [and/or] … to make direct comparisons among classes, schools, or school districts” (291).
 * “A scale used for reporting test scores typically refers to numbers assigned to students on the basis of their test performances. Higher numbers (higher scores) reflect increasing levels of achievement or ability” (292).
 * “Scale scores are converted raw scores that use a new, arbitrarily chosen scale to represent levels of achievement or ability” (292).
 * There are many different ways in which students are assessed as well as different ways to read and understand those assessments. The more familiar you are with the various ways the better you will understand the assessments and better be able to communicate the outcomes to parents.
 * Pick the way to visually represent scores that works best for you and familiarize your students with it.

Chapter 13: Base Group 6 //__Things to keep in mind:__// > > > ** Brooke Vecchio Chapter 14 > __Appropriate and Inappropriate Test-Preparation Practices__ ** > //Importance of chapter:// how teachers should prepare their students for significant tests. > // (Teachers should use the guidelines to effectively prepare their students for their tests) // >  > __ High-Stakes Assessment __ > ü   //High-stakes testing//- an assessment whose consequences have important implications either for students (such as grade-to-grade promotion) and/or educators (such as when schools are qualitatively ranked on the basis of students’ test scores). > ü   These test scores were significant because test scores were often linking to high school graduation or to grade-level promotion. > ü   Educators were frequently told to raise test scores because results were publicized by the media and if high test scores were achieved, the school would be looked at as having an effective instructional program. So many used certain pressures to boost students’ scores. > > __ Two Evaluative Guidelines __ > ü   1. //Professional ethics//- indicated that no test- preparation practice should violate the ethical norms of the education profession. > o   Example: should tutors help students __during__ the exam? > ü   2. //Educational defensibility//- indicated that no test- preparation practice should increase students’ test scores without simultaneously increasing students’ mastery of the curricular aim tested. Importance: engage in instructional practices that are in the best interests of the students. > o   Example: teachers should increase students’ scores if they don’t deserve it because their knowledge of the material is supposed to increase their scores. Their preparation practice and increased knowledge about the topic should go hand-in-hand when completing the tests. > > __ 5 Test-Preparation Practices __ > ü   1. //Previous-form preparation// (special instruction and practice based directly on students use of previous form of the actual test) > ü   2. //Current-form preparation// (special instruction and practice based directly on students use of the test currently being used) > ü   3. //Generalized test-taking preparation// (special instruction covering test-taking skills for dealing with a variety of achievement-test formats) > ü   4. //Same-format preparation// (regular classroom instruction dealing directly with the content covered on the test but only practice items using the same format is on the test) > ü   5. //Varied-format preparation// (regular classroom instruction dealing directly with the content covered on the test but practice items represents a variety of test-item formats) > > ü   Applying the two evaluative guidelines to the five test-preparation practices, it was concluded that the only two practices satisfying both guidelines were generalized test-taking and varied-format preparation. > > > > > > > > > << Back to Section 1 Home > << Back to EDC 452 2008 Home
 * Sara Green**
 * The most frequently used types of score interpretation schemes are percentiles, grade-equivalent scores and scale scores.
 * A percentile indicates a student’s standing in relationship to that of a norm group.
 * Unrepresentative or out of date norm data yield inaccurate percentile interpretations.
 * The advantage of percentiles is that they are really interpretable but the disadvantage is that they are dependent on the quality of the norm group(25%= exceeds performance of 25% of individuals in norm group).
 * A grade equivalent score indicates the nature of a student’s test performance in terms of grade levels and months.(3.7= seventh month of third grade)
 * The advantage of grade equivalents is that they are readily communicable but the disadvantage is that the information is often misinterpreted.
 * Scale scores are interpreted according to a converted numerical scale that allows us to transform raw scores into more statistically useful scale-score units.
 * Scale-score schemes based on item response theory do this by weighing individual test items differently based on an item’s difficulty and other technical properties in relation to those same properties for all of a test’s items.
 * The advantage of scale scores is that they are useful in equalizing difficulties of different test forms but the disadvantage is that they are not easily interpretable.
 * To interpret a particular standardized test’s results sensibly, teachers need to be able to interpret and know the form of reporting scheme used.
 * Popham does not believe standardized tests provide the instructionally sensible, fine-grained diagnostic data teachers need for accurate decisions.
 * The SAT, originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, was first administered in 1926 as a way for Northern admissions officials of elite universities to determine which applicants should be admitted.
 * The SAT was originally conceived of as a group-administrable intelligence test designed to compare test-takers according to their inherited verbal, qualitative and spatial aptitudes.
 * During the last few decades we have seen less attention given to the inherited nature of what’s being assessed.
 * In 2005 a written component was added to the SAT that raised the perfect from 1600 to 2400 but the essay is only worth about 20% of the student’s score.
 * The ACT, originally called American College Testing Program, was developed by a professor who believed that the SAT, given its ancestry as an aptitude test designed for students attending elite colleges was not a suitable exam for many post -WWII college applicants.
 * The ACT was developed as an achievement test worried chiefly as a measure of a student’s “educational development.”
 * The SAT focuses on more heavily on assessing students’ academic aptitudes while the ACT focuses on measuring the kinds of skills and knowledge that, having been previously learned, are necessary in college.
 * The more money that’s spent on a preparation activity for either of these two tests, the more effective the preparation is apt to be.
 * Only about 25% of academic success in college is associated with at high school students performance on the SAT or ACT. Which means 75 % of a student’s college grades are due to factors other than score son the SAT or ACT.
 * Because many teachers are unaware of the predictive imprecision of college entrance tests, they don’t do enough to dissuade students from prematurely foreclosing their college aspirations after receiving a low score.
 * A teacher needs to know and be informed about the most important types of score schemes such as percentiles, grade-equivalent scores and scale scores in order to interpret and use the information provided correctly.
 * Both college entrance exams (SAT, ACT) only account for approximately 25% of a students success.