1. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 145: Why are achievement tests used?
To gather formal evidence about student learning.
Page 146:
What are the two most common types of test questions?
Selection Items and Supply Items

2. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 146: Name 3 examples of selection items.
Multiple-choice, true-false, and matching questions.
Page 146:
Multiple-choice questions are primarily used to assess what level of Bloom’s?
knowledge and comprehension

3. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 146:
Name an advantage of multiple-choice questions.
Easy to score.
Quickly completed by students.
Page 146:
Name a disadvantage of multiple-choice questions?
Do not allow students to construct, organize, and present their own answers.
Susceptible to guessing.

4. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 147:
True-false questions are mainly used to assess what levels of Bloom’s?
Knowledge and comprehension.
Page 147:
Name an advantage of true-false questions.
Easy to score.
Can give students several items that broadly sample their knowledge.

5. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 147:
What is a disadvantage of true-false questions?
Susceptible to guessing.
Page 147:
What is an advantage of matching items?
Easy to score.
Decrease the amount of reading students must perform in order to display knowledge.

6. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 148:
What is a disadvantage of matching items?
Limited to assessing lower-level behaviors.
Page 148:
Give examples of supply items.
Completion (fill-in-the-blank), short-answer items, essay questions, questions requiring students to create such things as diagrams, concept maps, etc.

7. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 148:
What levels of Bloom’s do short-answer questions mainly assess?
Knowledge or comprehension
Page 149:
What is the strength of essay items?
They give students the greatest opportunity to supply and construct their own responses making them the most useful for assessing higher-level thinking.

8. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 149:
What disadvantages are there to essay questions?
Time-consuming to answer and score.
Permit testing of a limited amount of students’ learning.
Place a premium on writing ability.
Page 151:
What is a higher-level question?
Any question that demands more from a student than memorization.

9. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 152:
Do interpretive items test higher or lower-level skills? Explain your answer.
Higher. They contain all the information needed to answer the question but the student must reason through the information to formulate an answer.
Page 153:
What is a disadvantage of interpretive items?
They require good reading skills.
They are difficult to construct.

10. Test Review: Chapter 6 Page 156:
What are 3 guidelines for writing or selecting test items?
1. must cover objectives
2. must be stated clearly and simply
3. must contain no misleading statements, confusing formatting, or excess verbiage
Page 157:
What are the seven rules for writing good test items?
Read them from pages

11. Test Review: Chapter 10 Page 301:
What are the 3 main purposes for commercial achievement tests?
1. To compare performance of students to that of similar students nationwide
2. To provide developmental information about student achievement over time
3. To identify areas of student strengths and weaknesses
Page 304:
What is a “norm group”?
A national sample of students.

12. Test Review: Chapter 10 Page 306: What does it mean to “pilot” a test?
This means the test questions are tried on a group of students similar to those for whom the final test is intended. Items that provide the most valid and reliable information are then selected for the final version of the test.
Page 311:
What is a percentile?
Probably the most commonly used score.
Indicate what percentage of the norm group the student scored ABOVE.

13. Test Review: Chapter 10 Page 311: What is a stanine? Page 312:
Nine point scale, with 1 representing the lowest performance and 9 the highest.
Page 312:
What is a grade equivalent score?
Used to identify a student’s development across grade levels.
Represent student achievement in terms of a grade and month in school.
An estimate of the student’s development level but is not indicative of the grade in which a student should be placed.

14. Test Review: Chapter 10 Page 314:
What three scores are most often reported by commercial achievement tests?
Percentiles, stanines, and grade equivalent scores
Page 317:
What are raw scores?
The number of items a student answers correctly.
They are NOT useful in interpreting or comparing student performance because the number of questions per subtests vary.

15. Test Review: Chapter 10 Page 325:
What are four factors that influence validity and reliability of commercially prepared achievement tests?
Appropriateness of content and objectives tested
Representativeness of the norming sample
Conditions under which the test is administered
Misinterpretations of test results

16. Classroom Assessment: Concepts and Applications
Chapter 7:
Improving Achievement Tests
Classroom Assessment: Concepts and Applications
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

17. How can we as teachers make test results valid and reliable?
Assembling Tests and Administering Tests
Understanding and Addressing Cheating
Scoring Tests
Giving Feedback to Students

18. 1/2
Assembling Tests
Test items of the same type should be grouped together.
Avoids shifting responses
Allows for one set of directions
Makes scoring easier
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19. Assembling Tests Selection items first
2/2
Assembling Tests
Selection items first
Supply items should be placed last
WHY?

20. Assembling Tests
. Each test section should have clear directions telling students what to do, how to respond, and where to answer.

21. When arranging items on a test, remember these commonsense practices:
Designate a space for the student’s name and/or ID number.
Do not split a multiple-choice or matching item across two pages of the test. This can cause unintended errors when students flip from one page to the next to read the second half of a matching question or the last two options of a multiple-choice question.
Separate multiple-choice options from the stem by beginning the options on a new line.
Number test items, especially if students must record answers on a separate answer sheet or in a special place on the test.
Space items for easy reading, and be sure to leave enough space for students to complete supply items. Remember that young students often have large writing. Do not place items close together.
Proofread the test yourself or have someone else do so before making copies or administering it on a computer.
Check the clarity of photocopied tests. Make a few extra copies.
If the test is delivered on a computer, allow students to navitgate easily back and forth between test items.
Each section of a test should have directions that focus students on what to do, how to respond, and where to place their answers. Lack of clear directions is one of the most common faults in teacher-prepared tests and often reduces test validity. Here are some sample directions:
Items 1-15 are multiple-choice items. Read each item carefully and write the letter of your answer on the line in front of the question number.
Use words from the boxes to complete the sentences. Use each word only once.
Answer each question by writing the correct answer in the space below the question. No answer should be longer than one sentence.
For items 10 to 15, circle Tor F (true or false.)
Use the chart to help you answer questions Write your answers in the space provided after each question.
For older students, it is also helpful to indicate the number of points that will be given to each test section so they can make decisions about how to allocate their time.

22. 2. Psychological setting 3. Keeping track of time
1/4
Administering Tests
1. Physical setting
2. Psychological setting
3. Keeping track of time
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23. 2/4
1. Physical Setting
Students need a quiet, comfortable testing environment.
Post a “Testing in Progress” sign on the door to minimize interruptions.
Inform the class, as a whole, if errors or unclear items are discovered.
Be consistent in answering questions.

24. 2. Psychological Setting
3/4
2. Psychological Setting
Reduce text anxiety by:
Giving students advance notice
of the test
Making an opportunity to
prepare for it
Conducting a test review.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

25. 3. Keeping Track of Time Remind students of the
4/4
3. Keeping Track of Time
Remind students of the
time throughout the test.
Such reminders are particularly helpful at the middle and high school levels during final exams.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

26. Issues of Cheating Cheating is a common occurrence.
1/4
Issues of Cheating
Cheating is a common occurrence.
Ways to discourage cheating:
Good instruction
Seating arrangements
Knowing common cheating methods
Observing students during testing
Consequences for those who cheat
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

27. 2/4
Types of Cheating
Looking at another student’s paper during a test.
Allowing other students to copy off of his/her own test or paper.
Passing items, such as
notes or erasers, which
contain test information.
Developing codes.
Using crib notes or cheat sheets.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

28. 3/4
Plagiarizing
Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work as one’s own, without attribution.
Students often plagiarize out of pressure to succeed or because they think they can get away with it.
See
page 180
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29. Table 7.1. Cheating Prevention Strategies
4/4
Table 7.1. Cheating Prevention Strategies

30. Scoring Paper-and-Pencil Tests
The process of scoring a test involves measurement—assigning a number to represent a student’s performance.
There is a wide range of ease and difficulty encountered when scoring different item types.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

31. Scoring Selection Items
Selection items can be scored objectively because they are usually brief and have only one correct answer.
Teachers compare a key containing correct answers to the answers the student has given.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

32. Scoring Short-Answer & Completion Items
Short responses such as a word, phrase, date, or number can usually be scored objectively.
Lengthier responses increase the subjectivity of the scoring.

33. Unexpected Responses
In scoring unexpected responses, teachers must decide if wrong answers are the result of faulty test items or a lack of student learning.
How a teacher interprets students’ unexpected responses greatly impacts students’ test scores and grades.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

34. Scoring Essay Items… the ultimate in scoring complexity!
Many types of scorer subjectivity can influence how an essay item is scored:
Handwriting and neatness
Spelling and grammar
Fatigue of the scorer
Identity of the student
Location of one’s test paper in the pile of papers

35. Scoring Essay Items: Holistic vs. Analytic Scoring
Holistic scoring provides a single, overall impression of the complete essay and results in a single score or grade.
Analytic scoring provides a separate score for each component of the essay. For example: accuracy, organization, supporting arguments, and grammar and spelling.
Which do you think gives the most detailed feedback?

36. Guidelines for Scoring a Test

37. Analyzing Item Validity
Perform posttest reviews to:
Identify and make scoring adjustments for items that were ambiguous or misunderstood.
Identify ways to improve items for use on future tests.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

38. Selective Reviewing of Multiple-Choice Items
The difficulty index describes the proportion of students who answered it correctly.
The discrimination index describes how an individual item fares with students who scored high and low on the overall test.
Positive discrimination: one that is more frequently answered correctly by students who score high on the test as a whole than by students who score low.
Can range in value from -1.0 to +1.0 with a value between .3 and .8 being generally desirable
Items with a negative value or a value less than .2 warrants close examination

39. Realistic Review of Multiple-Choice Items
While it is desirable to review all items in a multiple-choice test, limitations in time make it more realistic to review those items that half or more of the students answered incorrectly.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

40. Discussing Test Results with Students
Provide feedback to students through written comments on papers or exams.
Review test results when students have the graded test in front of them to answer questions.
Explain how tests were scored.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

41. Universal Design & Test Accommodations
A test accommodation occurs when one or more aspects of a test are changed to accommodate special needs.
Advocates of universal design argue that tests should be designed from the beginning to meet a wide range of needs; not changed after it is already created.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

42. Examples of Universal Design in Testing
Allow students to record answers directly on the test page
Use a larger font with more spacing between questions
Use simple sentence structures
Use common vocabulary
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

43. Testing Accommodations
1/5
Testing Accommodations
Accommodations can be made by:
1. Modifying the format of presentation
2. Modifying the response format
3. Modifying the test setting
4. Modifying the timing of a test
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

44. 1. Modify the Presentation Format
2/5
1. Modify the Presentation Format
Read directions for each test section.
Have student repeat directions to ensure understanding.
Read test questions aloud slowly.
Present test in Braille, large print, etc.
Revise or simplify language level.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

45. 2. Modify the Response Format
3/5
2. Modify the Response Format
Allow dictionaries, texts, or calculators.
Allow responses in alternate languages.
Provide a scribe.
Provide examples of expected responses.
Include definitions or formulas.
Allow use of notes.
Make test similar to instruction.

46. 3. Modify Test Timing Provide extra time. Avoid timed tests.
4/5
3. Modify Test Timing
Provide extra time.
Avoid timed tests.
Test over a period of discrete testing sessions.
Give extra breaks during testing.
Allow unlimited time.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

47. 4. Modify Test Setting Test in a separate, quiet location.
5/5
4. Modify Test Setting
Test in a separate, quiet location.
Seat student away from distractions.
Test one-on-one: one student, one test administrator.

48. Chapter OLC Review
Visit Chapter 7 of the text website for chapter quizzes, related websites, case studies, and other helpful study materials.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.