EDUC 603-Chapter 3 Practice

Suppose you were a social studies teacher and you wanted to show that, collectively, eight items on a test about the Civil War measured the students’ general understanding about the causes of the war. You administer the test, conduct an item analysis on the multiple-choice response data, and apply Cronbach’s coefficient alpha to the scores of these eight items. What type of assessment reliability are you attempting to estimate?

• Alternate form

• External validity

• Internal consistency

• Stability

When presented with a description of reliability measures applied to a specific dataset, which type of reliability is being estimated if the method involves comparing results from the same test administered on two different occasions?

• Alternate form

• External validity

• Internal consistency

• Stability

Which type of reliability answers the question: Do the same methods yield the same assessment result?

• Internal

• External

Which type of reliability answers the question: Using the same methods, will you consistently obtain the same assessment results with different population samples?

• Internal

• External

Which of the following best describes the purpose of the standard error of measurement?

• Collect evidence for determining the degree to which an assessment is biased

• Determine the degree of difficulty of a particular assessment

• Estimate the consistency of an individual's test performance on other equally-difficult (or easy) tests

• Estimate the degree to which an assessment measures the same skills across time

Suppose you are a fifth-grade teacher whose students recently completed a series of standardized tests. After the score reports are sent home, a parent comes to you with a question about her son's overall math score. He scored a 51, which was on the upper range of the 'Proficient' category (44-53). The results indicate that the standard error of measurement for the math test was 4.3. The parent is concerned because her child has been categorized as 'Advanced' in math for all his previous grades, and she wants to know what her child's score says about his actual ability compared with the other kids who took the test. Which of the following statements best reflects an accurate statement addressing the student's score, considering the standard error of measurement?

• “Based on the standard error of measurement for the test, it is possible that your child would perform above the 'Proficient' level on an equally challenging test.”

• “Based on the standard error of measurement for the test, your child was accurately placed into the 'Proficient' category.”

• “Based on the standard error of measurement for the test, your child is performing at an advanced level, above the 'Proficient' category.”

• “Based on the standard error of measurement for the test, your child is just barely performing at a 'Proficient' level.”

Suppose a student correctly answered 30 of the 60 questions on an 8th grade science standardized test. The score report listed this performance as a scale score of 403, with a standard error of measurement at this achievement level reported as 15 scale score points. Based on this information, which of the following statements is most likely true about the student's performance on the assessment?

• The error of measurement indicates that approximately 9 questions in the assessment could be poorly written (problematic).

• The assessment may have some items that are biased against the student in some way.

• The student is performing at a level of achievement that is acceptable (proficient) for a typical 8th grader.

• If the students were to retake a different but equivalent assessment, he would likely achieve a scale score between 388 and 418.

Suppose you are a fifth-grade teacher who has been working hard to develop lessons designed to facilitate and grow critical thinking skills. At the end of the first semester, you administered an assessment to your students that is designed to measure critical thinking skills. You decide that any score above 80% indicates the learning of these skills. Most of the items on the assessment require quite a bit of reading as well as writing skills because some of the answers require essay-type responses. After grading the assessments, you discover that well over half of the class did not score above 80% on the assessment, but based on many different interactions with your students, you are fairly confident most have learned many more critical thinking skills than the assessment scores indicate. What type of measurement error is illustrated in this scenario?

• Type I Error

• Type II Error

• Neither Type I nor Type II error

Suppose you are a fifth-grade teacher who has been working hard to develop lessons designed to facilitate and grow critical thinking skills. At the end of the first semester, you administered a 10-item multiple choice assessment to your students that is designed to measure critical thinking skills. You decide that any score that is 8/10 (80%) or higher indicates the learning of these skills. After grading the assessments, you discover that nearly every student scored 80% or higher on the assessment, but based on many different interactions with your students, you are fairly confident most have NOT yet learned many of the critical thinking skills than assessment was designed to measure. What type of measurement error is illustrated in this scenario?

• Type I Error

• Type II Error

• Neither Type I nor Type II error