Do Your Assessment Instruments Measure Up? Gerald Tindal UO

Tests in Search of Constructs versus Constructs in Search of Tests: Clinical Test Selection for Research Purposes ”Logical network of evidence gathered to support its test score inferences…” Definition of constructs with content validity, latent traits, and achievement testing (formative and summative) Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and Test Development

Walk Away Message and Questions A current view of building a nomological net and viewing the the validation process as a series of logical procedures supplemented by empirical data Under the hood of terms and further development: – Formative (what is the skill of teachers who use the data?). Think of Hedges’ analysis of instrumental variables. – Summative (Can this term term fit everything from large-scale testing to final course evaluations?)

Developing, validating, and scaling-up continuous progress monitoring measures for intervention research and accountability in early childhood. Preschool growth indicators Strategic not comprehensive and related to important socially valid indicators (as well as other criteria for frequent use) Attention to technical adequacy and various types of validity evidence GOM versus MM and focus on functional nature of behavior with practical examples

Walk Away Message and Questions Very clear (banded) interpretation of GOM that spans behavioral measurement with functional assessment and applies to practice Under the hood of terms and further development – Scaling properties of the measures (linear or curvilinear) – Implications of changing behavior (example of negative reinforcement with goal of “child using gestures, sounds, words, or sentences to convey wants and needs or to express meaning to others”)

Assessing Teacher Knowledge in Reading and Writing Instruction: Perplexities, Problems and Promises Teacher content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in teaching reading and writing Need to attend to ‘ecological validity’ (inert and enacted knowledge) Measurement strategy domains and practices can and should be considered Other important considerations of adoption and implication to testing teacher knowledge

Walk Away Message and Questions The intersective nature of analysis in which a content domain is mastered and its application is demonstrated Under the hood of terms and further development – Subject and environmental specificity of ‘knowledge and practice” – Other professions and praxis examinations; the integration of outcomes