Self-Assessment Answers

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Chapter 14

Ms. Tranh speaks to Anita's parents about the many measures of achievement she has to assess Anita's academic ability. Which of the following types of assessment would Ms. Tranh use to predict Anita's future performance?
ANSWER: c) Aptitude tests are designed to assess student potential, measuring general abilities and predicting future performance.

Which of the following interpretations would Ms. Tranh make if Anita were to score at the mean of a standardized test?
ANSWER: b) The arithmetic mean is equivalent to 50 for NCE, 0 for z, and 50 for percentile ranking.

Ms. Tranh tells Mr. and Mrs. McKay that Anita's grade equivalent score on the CAT is 6.9. What does this mean?
ANSWER: c) A grade equivalent score of 6.9 means that Anita's score is the equivalent of a student in the ninth month of the sixth grade.

Ms. Tranh compares her students' scores on a math test with those of another class. She finds that the student's average score in both classes is 75, but the students in her class have scores that are much more spread out. This means that Ms. Tranh's results will have a larger
ANSWER: c) Standard deviation. Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of scores.

If Anita scored consistently on the CAT over multiple applications, it can be said that the test has
ANSWER: d) Reliability. Reliability refers to the consistency of test scores obtained from the same student at different times.

Write a short essay describing the advantages and major criticisms of standardized tests.
POSSIBLE ANSWER: Standardized tests are popular because they provide teachers, parents, and those involved in the selection process with an easy method to compare students to normative samples. For instance, SAT tests are employed by many colleges to determine suitability for admission, on the premise that SAT test scores are valid predictors of future academic performance. However, while standardized tests like the SAT make the selection processes easier, they are not necessarily the most reliable measure of future performance, as other factors like student motivation, subjective value of success, and previous success determine academic success. Further, standardized tests tend to discriminate unwittingly against the economically disadvantaged students, students attending poor quality schools, and ethnic minorities. Therefore, they should be employed with a battery of other sources in determination of college admission.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of absolute grading and relative grading standards?
POSSIBLE ANSWER: An advantage of absolute grading standards is student knowledge, in advance, of criteria for attainment of specific grades. One disadvantage of absolute grading standards is that student scores may depend on the difficulty of tests given. A second disadvantage is the range of grades is typically different, particularly for failure, such as 0-60 for an F, versus only 61 to 70 for a D.
Relative grading standards have the advantage of placing students' scores in relation to other students in class, without regard to test difficulty. Relative grading standards also have some disadvantages. For instance, attaining an A is much more difficult in high achieving classes than low achieving classes, when teachers grade on a curve. Further, relative grading standards increase competition for high grades, as each time a student receives an A, the lot of A's available decreases by one, making an already scarce resource even more scarce.

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