Assessment of Aptitude, Achievement, & Learning Disabilities

Aptitude Assessment Purpose: measure an examinee’s capacity for learning and to predict whether he or she would likely benefit from an educational or training program. Applications: Academic & Career Counseling. Selection & Placement Decisions.

American College Testing Program (ACT) Academic Tests: English. Math. Reading. Science Reasoning. Standard Scores: M = 18 & SD = 6 (recent mean of college bound seniors: 20-21)

Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT): SAT I: Reasoning Test, which includes Verbal & Mathematical Sections. Standard Scores: M= 500 & SD = 100 SAT II: Subject Tests (e.g., History), which are used for both admission decisions & determining course placement. Current examinees’ raw scores are compared to the raw scores obtained by the 1 million examinees who took the SAT in 1994. Previous examinees were compared to a 1941 standardization sample.

Do ACT/SAT Tests Really Predict Academic Performance? Technically, yes. But the relationship between aptitude test scores and college performance is only moderate.

Hypothetical Relationship between ACT Scores & GPA Y = ACT(.073) + 1.39 Example: Given an ACT score of 20, we would predict a GPA of 2.85.

Validity of Admissions Tests for predicting college performance: ACT & SATI have equal validity for predicting college performance. Prediction of Undergraduate GPA: SAT (r  .36) v. HSR (r  .42). HSR + SAT scores increases r to .50 to .60. Prediction of graduation from college: SAT (r  .33) v. HSR (r  .29). *Validity coefficients are higher when researchers correct for GPA unreliability and restriction of range.

SAT I vs. SAT II (Geiser & Studley, 2002) N =77,893 CA students. SAT-II scores were the best predictor of UGPA (r = .25), followed by HSGPA (r = .24), and SAT-I (r = .18). SAT I scores did not enhance the prediction of UGPA beyond that predictable by SAT II scores & HSGPA. The predictive validity of the SAT-II is less affected by SES than the SAT-I.

Benefits of ACT or SAT Students are directly compared on the same standard or set of tasks. These tests do have modest predictive validity (r = .30 to .50). Tests may identify underachievers who have the potential to succeed in college, but who did not do well in high school.

Problems with Alternative Criteria: Standards and grading policies vary from school to school (and teacher to teacher). Total GPA does not reflect quality and difficulty of courses completed. Curriculum differences across school systems. Grade inflation and other leniency errors. Nearly all letters of recommendation are laudatory and lack any predictive validity.

Graduate Admissions Tests Graduate Record Examination (GRE): Verbal, Quantitative, & Analytical Writing. Subjects tests are also available. Standard Scores: M= 500 & SD = 100 Miller’s Analogies Test (MAT). Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT).

Adaptive Testing: Selection of subsequent test items is based upon how well examinee performed on previous items; requires fewer items because examinee is not given items that are too easy or too difficult; typically the test items are administered by computer.

General Aptitude Tests Purpose: (1) identify an examinee’s specific strengths & weaknesses and (2) match an examinee to specific jobs or training programs. Examinees are assessed on several specific abilities, like mechanical reasoning, rather than a global attribute Unlike tests like the ACT that measure scholastic aptitude, these inventories focus more on “real world” abilities.

Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) General Science Arithmetic Reasoning Word Knowledge Paragraph Comprehension Numerical Operations Coding Speed Auto & Shop Information Mathematics Knowledge Mechanical Comprehension Electronics Information

O*Net (formerly General Aptitude Test Battery) Verbal Abilities. Arithmetic Reasoning. Computation. Spatial Ability. Form Perception Clerical Perception Motor Coordination Finder Dexterity Manual Dexterity

Achievement Tests Purpose: asses what an examinee has already learned as a result of education or other training experiences.

Types of Achievement Tests Survey Achievement Batteries: monitor students’ progress on basic educational domains from year to year; ex. TerraNova or the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills/Educational Development. Individual Achievement Tests: diagnostic evaluations; ex. WIAT. Criterion-Referenced Achievement Tests: evaluate whether a examinee has mastered certain material or a given academic standard has been met (e.g., high school graduation exams). Specific Subject Tests: for example, the exams you will take in this course.

Lake Wobegon Effect Amazingly, most students and school districts score above average on norm-referenced achievement tests. How can this occur? Outdated norms; students are performing better than older norm group. Cheating by teachers. Eliminating low-performing students from the test pool.

No Child Left Behind Act Purpose: increase the accountability of the public school system. All students in grades 3-8 must be annually assessed in reading & math. States must develop standards & objectives for educational achievement.

By the 2013-2014 school year, states must demonstrate that all of their students are proficient in basic academic skills. School systems that fail to meet the new standards will be labeled as deficient; students in these schools may have the option of transferring to a higher performing school.

Aptitude v. Achievement Tests Purpose: predict future performance. Predictive Validity. Evaluate more general competencies that may be innate or acquired in the distant past. Achievement Purpose: assess current performance Content Validity. Evaluate more specific competencies that have been recently learned.

What is a Learning Disability? Definition: failure of an individual, despite adequate intelligence & training, to master a certain academic skill (Sattler, 1998) or a severe discrepancy between IQ & achievement Disabilities are believed to result from problems in the central nervous system (i.e., information processing problems). Need to rule out other explanations for low achievement, such as hearing impairments or emotional disturbance.