Learning Objectives

After completing your study of this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

• Describe the types of decisions educational administrators, teachers, and other edu­cational professionals make using psychological test results.
• Explain why educational administrators, teachers, and other educational profession­als are test users and why they need to follow professional practice standards.
• Explain the professional practice standards specific to those who use tests in educa­tional settings.
• Explain the differences between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests.
• Describe authentic assessment and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of authentic assessment.

Chapter Summary

Professionals in educational settings, including educational administrators, teachers, and other testing professionals such as school psychologists, make important decisions every day using the results of stan­dardized and teacher-made tests. The educational professionals use test scores to make inferences to help make important decisions about teaching, learning, and outcomes. The consequences resulting from using test scores to make decisions can be significant.

As test users, educational professionals who use tests are ethically bound to follow the professional practice standards specific to using tests in educational settings. They should be properly trained on the appropriate use of tests and should consider whether the tests they select or use have evidence of validity and reliability/precision and are fair.

During the instructional process, teachers use psychological tests as placement assessments (to determine whether students are ready to learn new material and to determine how much of the material they already know), formative assessments (to determine what information students are and are not learning), diagnostic assessments (to determine students’ learning difficulties more accurately), and summative assessments (to determine what students have learned and to assign grades accordingly). In the classroom, psychological tests can also help motivate students, help students retain and transfer what they have learned, help students understand their strengths and weaknesses, and provide teachers with information regarding the effectiveness of their teaching methods. Administrators and testing specialists use psychological tests to make selection and placement decisions. Unlike those used in the classroom, selection and placement decisions are typically made using standardized tests of achieve­ment, aptitude, and intelligence. Career counselors use the results of psychological tests, along with other information, to help individuals explore their interests, abilities, and preferences and to consider career options that align with these. Educational administrators also use psychological tests to maintain and improve the quality of educational systems. They may use the results of tests to select the best cur­riculum for a school and to determine where funds should be directed.

Many different types of psychological tests are used in educational settings, and each can be classified as either a norm-referenced or a criterion-referenced test. Norm-referenced tests allow us to compare an individual’s performance with the performance of a previously tested group of individuals in order to determine how well the individual performed relative to a particular norm group. Criterion-referenced tests allow us to compare an individual’s score with an objectively stated standard of achievement in order to determine the extent to which the individual has obtained desired knowledge and/or skills. Most teacher-made classroom tests are criterion-referenced tests. Some educators believe that norm- and cri­terion-referenced tests do not measure what is important in real life. Instead, they support increased use of authentic assessment. Authentic assessment involves evaluating a student’s ability to apply information to real-world settings using more than one measure of performance. When teachers require students to perform tasks and create portfolios, they are using authentic assessment techniques.