PSYCHOLOGICAL

ASSESSMENT THEORY

Achievement test: Achievement

testing refers to any procedure or instrument
that is used to measure an examinee’s
attainment of knowledge or skills.
 STANDARDIZED ACHIEVEMENT TEST

Foundation of achievement test:

• Any test of ability (general intelligence, special abilities, achievement) actually measures what
people have achieved. The items on tests of intelligence and special abilities, like those on
achievement tests, require examines to demonstrate some accomplishment scores on achievement
tests are used for many of the same purposes as scores on other tests of general or specific abilities.
The purpose include global and diagnostic assessment of individual abilities and evaluation of the
effectiveness of education and social program.
Educational achievement tests:
• Educational achievement tests are often better predictors of school marks than tests of intelligence and
special abilities, but they cannot completely replace. They accomplishment and attainments measured by
general intelligence tests are broader and are the products of less formal and usually less recent learning
experiences than those measured by standardized achievement tests. Most achievement tests assess
knowledge of something that has been explicitly taught, so scores on these tests tend to be influenced
more by coaching than scores on tests of intelligence and special abilities.

• Achievement tests focus more on the present, that is, on what a person knows or can do right now. On the
other hand, tests of intelligence and special abilities focus on the future: they measure aptitude of
learning, that is, what a person should be able to do with further education and training.
 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

• The introduction of both oral and written tests of achievement in personal and educational
assessment is attributable in some measures to the Chinese experience. the selection of
government employees by mean of oral examination began in china around 150 B.C.(BOW man
1989). Written test in composition and poetry, recopied and judged by two graders, were first
used in china around A.D. 1370. Following in the introduction paper making into Europe, a skill
that European learned from the Arabs in the 12 century and that the later had learned from the
Chinese in the 8th century, written examinations began to replace oral examinations in some
European universities. The first educational use of written tests in a European university
reportedly occurred at Cambridge, England , in 1702 and the university of London was chartered
as an examining center for a written test in 1836(Green 1991). Not until 1845, however, were
written examinations administered on a large scale in the United state.
• By the early 1800s the number of students in Urban schools of the United states had grown too
large for a frequent administration of oral examinations. Nevertheless, oral testing continued to be
the principal method for evaluating pupil achievement in this country until the latter half of the
19th century. In 1845, the Boston educator Horace Mann argued persuasively that written
examinations, administered and scored under uniform conditions were better measures of
achievement than oral examinations.
Purpose and function of achievement tests:
• The basic purpose of achievement testing is determine how much people know about certain topics
or how well they can perform certain skills. The result of achievement testing inform students as
well as teachers and parents, about students' scholastic accomplishment and deficiencies. Other
function of achievement testing include advanced placement, course credit, certification and
accountability for the quality of teaching. Such tests can also act as stimulus for student learning,
provide teachers and school administrators with information for planning or modifying the
curriculum for a student or group of students, and serve as a means of evaluating the instructional
program and staff. The tests measure only a sample of educational achievements, but presumably by
representative sample in a particular subject or grade.
Teacher made and standardized tests:
• Teacher made and standardized tests represent only a fraction of the numbers of tests administered in the
schools: students spend more time taking teacher made than standardized tests.

• Teacher made tests differ from standardized tests in certain important respect. A teacher made tests is more
specific to particular teacher, classroom, and unit of instruction and is easier to keep up to date than standardized
tests. Consequently teacher made tests is more likely to reflect the current educational objectives of particular
school or teacher.

• Standardized tests on the other hand are built around a core of educational objectives common to many different
school. These objectives represent the combined judgements of subjects matter experts who cooperate with test-
construction specialist with developing tests. Standardized achievement tests are also concerned as much or
more understanding and thinking processes as with factual knowledge. Teacher made and standardized tests are
complementary rather than opposing method of evaluating achievement. They measure somewhat different but
equally important things, and depending on the objectives of the particular classroom or school, both kinds of
tests should be employed.
• Standardized tests have norms and are usually more reliable. For these reasons, standardized achievement
tests are particularly useful in comparing individual pupils for the purpose of class placement and in
evaluating different curricula by assessing relative achievement of different schools and districts. The
diagnostic function of a test, whereby a person’s abilities and disabilities in a certain subject or area are
determined, may be served by both teacher made and standardized tests. However, standardized tests are
somewhat more effective for this purpose.
Summative and formative evaluation:
• Traditional educational practice calls for administering an achievement test at the end of an instructional unit or
course to determine whether students have attained specific objectives.
In this procedure, refereed to as summative evaluation, a test score is viewed as an end product, or summing
up, of a large units of educational experience. In contrast to summative evaluation, the need for formative
evaluation is a consequences of the belief that instruction and evaluation should be integrated the purpose of
formative evaluation is to help both students and teacher focus on the learning experiences needed to move
toward mastery of the subject.
• When evaluation is formative, testing and other methods of assessing educational progress take place
continuously during the instructional process. Instructional units are developed that include testing as an
ongoing, integral part of instruction, rather than simply accumulation of the process. In the way the learner’s
performance is monitored throughout the instructional sequence and can serve to direct review and further
learning.
Examples of summative and formative assessment

Formative Summative
In- class discussions Instructor-created exam
Quicker questions Standardized test
Low-stakes group question Final projects
Weekly quizzes Final essays
Types and selection of standardized achievement test:
These are four types of standardized achievement tests:

1. Survey test batteries

2. Single-subject survey test

3. Diagnostic tests

4. Prognostic test
1. Survey test batteries:
• The most comprehensive way of assessing achievement is so administer a survey-test battery, a set
of subject- matter tests designed for a particular grade levels. The major purpose of administering
a battery of tests is to determine an individual’s general standing in various subject rather than his
or her specific strength and weaknesses. Consequently, each test in a survey battery contains a
fairly limited sample of the content and skills in a particular subject. Because all tests in a battery
are standardized on the same group of people band the scores are expressed on the same numerical
scale, a person’s performance in different subjects can be compared directly.
2. Single subject survey tests:
• Single- subject test are usually longer and more detailed than comparable tests in a battery and
thereby permit a more thorough evaluation of achievement in a specific area. Single-subject test
are not designed to identify specific, detailed causes of high or low performance in a subject; they
typically yield on overall score and perhaps a couple of sub scores. Because of greater uniformity
among different schools in reading and mathematics instruction than in other subjects,
standardized test in these two areas tend to be more valid than, for example science and social
study tests.
3. Diagnostic test:
• Diagnostic tests have the function of identifying specific difficulties in learning a subject. To
construct a diagnostic test in a basic skill such as reading, arithmetic, or spelling, performance in
subject such as a whole is analyzed into sub skills, and then groups of items are constructed to
measure performance in sub skills. Unlike survey tests, which focus on total score, diagnostic test
yield score on each of several sub skills.

• Most diagnostic test are in reading, but diagnostic test in mathematics, spelling, and foreign
languages are also available. A diagnostic test contains a greater variety of items and usually takes
longer to administer than a survey test in the same subject.
4. Prognostic test:
• Prognostic test which contains a wider variety of items than survey achievement tests in the same
subject, are designed to predict achievement in specific school subjects. For example, the purpose
of a reading-readiness test administered to kindergartener, or first grade is to predict whether the
child is prepared to be benefit sufficiently from instruction in reading. At a higher grade level,
prognostic test in mathematics (algebra, geometry) and foreign languages are available for
predicting ease of learning these subjects.
• Representative achievement tests batteries:

• California achievement test (CTB/McGraw-Hill; grades K-12):

The California Achievement Test, CAT E/Survey (Grades 4-12), is a nationally normed standardized test
normed in 1986 that measures achievement in the areas of Reading, Language Arts, and Math. It meets most
states' requirements for an annual assessment for homeschool and private school use.

• Wechsler individual achievement test 2 (WIAT-2) ( The psychological

cooperation, ages 5-19 years):
The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Second Edition (WIAT-II) – is a comprehensive test designed to
assess academic achievement. Academic achievement is defined as the ability to apply cognitive skills and
learned knowledge to grade-level expectations.
Test in high education and the profession:
• Many institutions of higher learning permit students to earn credit for college course by obtaining
acceptable score on standardized achievement test such as those administered by the collage Board’s
Advanced Placements Program(APP), the College –Level Examination Programs (CLEP) and the ACT
Proficiency Examination Program. In addition. Colleges, universities and professional schools use scores
on standardized achievement tests as criteria for selecting students.

• A set of standardized achievement tests used in selecting students for graduated programs are the subject
test of the graduated record examinations (GRE). These tests which are available in eight subject areas (
Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology; Biology, Chemistry, Computer science, Literature in English ,
Mathematics, Physics, Psychology) may be taken along with the GRE General Test, by college students in
their senior year who intend to apply for admission to graduate school.