Standardized Testing: Its role in identifying gifted learners Identification and Assessment of...
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Transcript of Standardized Testing: Its role in identifying gifted learners Identification and Assessment of...
Standardized Testing: Its role in identifying gifted learners
Identification and Assessment of Gifted
Deborah Kelly
What are Standardized Tests?
• Tests that are standardized in four areas:Format – the format of all questions for all students in the same (usually multiple choice)Questions – the questions for all students are the sameInstructions – the instructions for all students are the sameTime allotment – the time permitted to complete the test is the same for all students
Types of Standardized Tests
• Norm-referenced: Provides a relative ranking of a student among other students
• Criterion-referenced: A description of specific knowledge and skills each student can demonstrate
Source: Assessment of Student Achievement
Norm-Referenced Tests
• Educators interpret a student’s performance in relation to the norm group (the performances of students who have previously taken the test)
• Examples of this type of test are: SAT, ITBS, MAT, or CAT
Norm-Referenced Tests
• Norms are established by testing children all over the country
• The norm, the 50th percentile, is determined by trying our test questions to see if the test items produce a result in which 50 percent of the students get the item wrong
• Devised distractors or wrong answers designed to trick students into making mistakes
• Contents are tested for “validity” to determine if the item tests what it claims to measure
Criterion-Referenced Tests
• Scores performance in relation to a clearly specified set of behaviors
• Does not depend on how other students performed on the test; focus is how the student performed on the domain of the content
Criterion-Referenced Tests
• Our GCRCT is this type of test
• High-stakes in that we use this to determine whether a child passes or fails third and fifth grades
• Controversy has arisen among educators who question the “cut-score” for passing or failing
Reliability
• Means accuracy in measurement (the degree to which the results would be nearly the same each time the test was administered)
• Scores derived from intelligence and achievement tests are likely to be highly reliable
• Must be present to a high degree for the identification process to be fair
History of Standardized Testing
Use of standardized testing in the United States cannot be attributed to any one factor, but can be closely linked to seven concerns or events:
1. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 was viewed as a wake-up call to improve mathematics and science curriculum so that we could stay competitive in the space race against the USSR.
2. Teachers inflated grades without regard to criteria or content of curriculum
History of Standardized Testing
3. Grades viewed as ambiguous. A grade might be reflective of variables such as attendance, behavior, neatness—not necessarily related to student achievement
4. Publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983
5. A decline of SAT scores between 1966 to 1990
History of Standardized Testing
6. Third International Mathematical and Science Study released test results showing that American students were slightly above average in science and slightly below average in math7. Large scale assessment perceived by public as guardian of educational standards(e.g., No Child Left Behind legislation)
History of Standardized Testing
• Looked to testing as a means of providing a “watchdog” for education – a means by which educational efforts could be measuredAt first glance, test seemed objectiveTheir multiple choice formats were cheap to administer and scoreResults were available relatively quickly
Uses for Standardized Tests
• Monitoring – Used as an external instrument to determine if test results correlate to other assessment indicators such as classroom performance and report card grades
• Diagnosis – To ascertain students’ strengths and weaknesses
• Teacher Accountability – When used to measure teacher performance, this can be problematic. Teachers are called upon to teach the students that appear at their door. As we all know, these students are not always distributed equitably among the staff.
Uses for Standardized Tests
• Principal/Superintendent/Board Accountability: Same issues here as for teachers. You get who you get.
• Student Accountability: Promotion, retention, graduation decisions – should not be the sole deciding factor, yet it often can be
• Selection Decision: To make discriminations among people to determine what type of educational experience they will have (gifted candidacy, for example)
Abuse of Standardized Tests
• Could result in tracking of students• Teachers and administrators might lose
jobs if students are low performers• Quality teaching sacrificed to “teaching the
test”• Pay for performance could result in less
willingness for teachers to teach the lower performing students
Abuse of Standardized Tests
• Eighteen states currently use exams to grant or withhold diplomas, but evidence shows that such tests actually decrease student motivation and increase the proportion of students who leave school early.
• We are among these states—our students must pass end of course tests in order to exit high school with a diploma.
Factors influencing test outcomes
• Family income• Educational level of parents• Poverty• Motivation• Cultural factors
Students don’t enter the testing arena on a level playing field. The same biases that exists with identification of gifted students within our classrooms are largely due to the biases that exist within the testing instruments with which we measure achievement and aptitude.
Hot Topics
Testing for young gifted children
Myth: Young children cannot be tested
because tests are not valid or reliable
for early ages.
Response: There are standardized tests that are valid and reliable for many young children
Hot Topics
• Myth: Verbal young children can score high on IQ tests causing false positives; that is, the tests will identify children as gifted who are not really gifted
• Response: If the test is valid and reliable, it will not give false positives
Hot Topics
Students outside the mainstream• Using multiple criteria that include inventories
and checklists• Broadening the data-finding procedures for
students including such approaches as peer nomination, self-nomination, parent nomination
• Use of tests that have a history of effectiveness in identifying disadvantaged students (Torrance and Naglieri, e.g.)
Hot TopicsAssessing Highly Gifted
• Complex—differences in scores obtained on various instruments are much greater for this group than for any other population
• “Ceiling effect” – occurs when the child’s knowledge goes beyond the limits of test
• Julian Stanley (1990) says “assessing the highly gifted is like trying to measure individuals who are 6 feet tall with a 5-foot ruler.
• There is no way to know how high a student’s score might have been if the test contained harder questions.
Hot Topics
One-Shot versus Continuing Assessment• Obviously, children grow and change.
Most assuredly, their talents and abilities undergo processes of differentiation and specialization as they move through elementary grades and into high school.
• Use continuing assessment as a means to fine-tune a student’s educational program.