1. CHAPTER 4: Using and Reporting Standardized Test Results
Assessment In Early Childhood Education
Fifth Edition Sue C. Wortham
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2. Chapter Objectives
1. Explain the difference between norm-referenced and
criterion-referenced tests.
2. List common characteristics of norm-referenced and
3. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using standardized tests.
4. Understand how test scores are interpreted and reported.
5. Describe how individual and group test results are used to report student progress and program effectiveness.
6. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using
norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests with
young children.
7. Understand the difficulties in using standardized tests with young children.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3. Distinctions Between Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced Tests
Norm-referenced tests provide information on how the performance of an individual compares with that of a known group.
Criterion-referenced tests provide information on how the individual performed on some standard or objective (without considering the performance of others).
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

4. Common Characteristics of Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Tests
Require a relevant and representative sample of test items
Require specification of the achievement domain to be measured
Use the same type of test items
Use the same rules for item writing (except for item difficulty)
Judged by the same qualities of goodness (validity and reliability)
Useful in educational measurement
(Linn and Gronlund, 2000)
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

5. Aptitude vs. Achievement Tests
Aptitude Tests
Predict a student’s ability to learn a skill
or accomplish a task.
(Stanford Binet,
Wechsler, SAT when
used to predict success)
Achievement Tests
Measure what the
student has learned
or mastered.
(California Achievement,
IOWA Basic Skills,
SAT when used to
determine what has been learned)
15.5

6. Uses of Norm-Referenced Tests with School-Age Children
Achievement tests are:
given to measure and analyze individual and group performance resulting from the educational program
analyzed for trends in achievement
used to describe the program effectiveness - areas of weakness and strength, and plans can be made to improve curriculum
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

7. How Criterion-Referenced Tests with Preschoolers Are Used
Developmental screening
Diagnostic evaluation
Instructional planning
Developmental screenings determine
whether further evaluation is needed to identify
disabilities and strategies for remediation.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8. Reasons Criterion-Referenced Tests Are Used with School-Age Children
Achievement test scores describe individual performance and are used to plan instruction for groups and individual students.
Diagnostic evaluation intelligence batteries in academic content areas are used with students who demonstrate learning difficulties.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

9. Savant Syndrome
condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill
Calculation abilities
Drawing
Musical

10. Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

11. Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

12. The Psychometric Approach
Intelligence -
A single attribute?
Spearman ( )
2 – factor theory of intelligence
“g” = general ability
“s” = special abilities

13. Figure 9.3 According to Spearman (1904), all intelligent abilities have an area of overlap, which he called (for “general”). Each ability also depends partly on an s (for “specific”) factor.

14. Figure 9.4a Measurements of sprinting, high jumping, and long jumping correlate with one another because they all depend on the same leg muscles. Similarly, the g factor that emerges in IQ testing could reflect a single ability that all tests tap.

15. Many attributes?
Thurstone: 7 primary mental abilities
Spatial ability, perceptual speed, numeric reasoning, verbal meaning, word fluency, memory, inductive reasoning

16. What is Intelligence? Fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence
Cattell & Horn believed that the “g” factor has two components:
- Fluid intelligence is the power of reasoning, solving unfamiliar problems, seeing relationships and gaining new knowledge
- Crystallized intelligence is acquired knowledge and the application of that knowledge to experience.

17. Concept Check:
A 16-year-old is learning to play chess and is becoming proficient enough to be accepted into the school’s chess club. Is this fluid or crystallized intelligence?

18. Concept Check:
Ten years later, the chess player achieves grandmaster status. Is this a result of fluid or crystallized intelligence?

19. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Logical-Mathematical
Linguistic
Musical
Spatial
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Existential
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Instructor’s Notes
Refer to Text/Discussion Topic:
Refer students to Table 12.2 which highlights the components of Gardner’s multiple intelligences. Ask students in which of these areas they have relative strengths (and weaknesses). Discuss the implications of this model for classroom instruction.
Discussion Topic:
When slides 17, 18, and 19 have been presented, ask students to discuss the implications of these models for all students, not just those who are gifted.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

20. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

21. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
Contextual Component (“street smarts or practical”)
Adapting to the environment
Experiential Component: (creative)
Response to novelty
Automatization
Componential Component (“academic or analytical”)
Information processing
Efficiency of strategies

22. Theories and Tests of Intelligence
IQ tests
Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests attempt to measure an individual’s probable performance in school and similar settings.
Binet ( ) and Simon created 1st IQ test in 1905

23. Binet Intelligence Tests
An individual’s level of mental development relative to others
Mental Age
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

24. Theories and Tests of Intelligence
The Stanford-Binet test
The Stanford-Binet test - V (2-85)
The mean or average IQ score for all age groups is designated as 100 ± 15 (85-115).
Given individually

25. Interpreting Test Scores
A child’s performance on a standardized test is meaningless until it can be compared with other scores.
A raw score is translated into a standard score that reports how well the child’s performance compares with that of other children who took the same test.
The bell-shaped normal curve is the graph on which the distribution of standard scores is arranged.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

26. The Normal Curve
Represents the ideal normal distribution of test scores
The scores are distributed in a bell-shaped frequency polygon, with most scores clustered toward the center of the curve
(see Figure 4-5 on p. 87 of the text)
Standard deviations are used to calculate how an individual scored, compared with the scores of the norming group
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

27. Normal Distribution
Normal Distribution

28. © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Santrock, Educational Psychology, Second Edition, Classroom Update
Bell Curve
4.28

29. Individual Intelligence Tests The Wechsler Scales
Overall IQ and also verbal and performance IQs.
(WPPSI-III) Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised. Ages 2 ½ to 7 years, 3 months
(WISC-IV) Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Ages 6 to 16 years, 11 months
(WAIS-IV) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised
Ages 16 to 90 years, 11 months

30. WPPSI-III
WPPSI

34. WAIS-III

36. WISC-IV
Word Reasoning—measures reasoning with verbal material; child identifies underlying concept given successive clues.
Matrix Reasoning—measures fluid reasoning a (highly reliable subtest on WAIS® –III and WPPSI™–III); child is presented with a partially filled grid and asked to select the item that properly completes the matrix.
Picture Concepts—measures fluid reasoning, perceptual organization, and categorization (requires categorical reasoning without a verbal response); from each of two or three rows of objects, child selects objects that go together based on an underlying concept.
Letter-Number Sequencing—measures working memory (adapted from WAIS–III); child is presented a mixed series of numbers and letters and repeats them numbers first (in numerical order), then letters (in alphabetical order).
Cancellation—measures processing speed using random and structured animal target forms (foils are common non-animal objects).

37. WAIS - IV

41. Theories and Tests of Intelligence
Raven’s Progressive Matrices
Psychologists created “culture-reduced” tests without language. It tests abstract reasoning ability (non-verbal intelligence or performance IQ)

45. Counting the Data-Frequency
Look at the set of data that follows on the next slide.
A tally mark was made to count each time a score occurred
Which number most likely represents the
average score?
Which number is the most frequently
occurring score?
Descriptive statistics are the mathematical procedures that are used to describe and summarize data.

46. Frequency Distribution
Scores
100 99 98 94 90 89 88 82 75 74 68 60
Tally 1 11
1111
1111 1
Frequency 1 2 5 7 10 6
Average
Score?
Most 88
Most Frequent
Score? 88

47. This frequency count represents data that
closely represent a normal distribution.
1111 1
1111
Tally 11 1

48. Descriptive Statistics
15.48

49. Frequency Polygons Data 100 89 99 89 98 89 94 88 90 75 90 74 90 68 5 4 3 2 1
Scores

50. Measures of Central Tendency
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Santrock, Educational Psychology, Second Edition, Classroom Update
Measures of Central Tendency
Measures of central tendency provide information about the average or typical score in a data set
Mean: The numerical average of a group of scores
Median: The score that falls exactly in the middle of a data set
Mode: The score that occurs most often
15.50

51. Mean- To find the mean, simply add the
Central tendency = representative or typical value in a distribution
Mean
Same thing as an average
Computed by
Summing all the scores (sigma, )
Dividing by the number of scores (N)
Mean- To find the mean, simply add the
scores and divide by the number of scores
in the set of data.
= 355
Divide by the number of scores: 355/4 = 88.75

52. Mean

53. Measures of Central Tendency
Steps to computing the median
1. Line up scores from highest to lowest
2. Count up to middle score
If there is 1 middle score, that’s the median
If there are 2 middle scores, median is their average
Aron, Aron, & Coups, Statistics for the Behavioral and Social Sciences: A Brief Course (3e), © 2005 Prentice Hall

54. Median-The Middlemost point in a set of data
Data Set 1
100 99 98 97 96 90 88 85 80 79
Data Set 2
100 99 98 97 86 82 78 72 70 68
The median is
84 for this set.
84 represents
the middle
most point in
this set of
data.
Median 96

55. Mode-The most frequently occurring score in
a set of data.
Find the modes for the following sets of data:
88 and 87 are both
modes for this
set of data. This is
called a bimodal
distribution.
Data Set 3 99 89 75
Data set 4 99 88 87 72 70
Mode: 89

56. Measures of Variability (Dispersion)
Range- Distance between the highest
and lowest scores in a set of data. 35 =
35 is the range in this set of scores.

57. Variance - Describes the total amount
that a set of scores varies from the
mean.
1. Subtract the mean from each score.
When the mean for a set of data is
87, subtract 87 from each score.

59. 2. Next-Square each difference-
multiply each difference by itself.
13 x 13 =
11 x 11 =
x 8 =
x 4 =
-2 x -2 =
-7 x -7 =
-27x -27=
= 13
= 11
= 8
= 4
= -2
= -7
= -27
3. Sum these
differences
1,152
Sum of
squares

60. 4. Divide the sum of squares by the
number of scores.
1,152 divided by 7 =
This number
represents the variance for this set of data.

61. Standard Deviation-Represents the typical
amount that a score is expected to vary
from the mean in a set of data.
5. To find the standard deviation, find the
square root of the variance. For this
set of data, find the square root of
The standard deviation for this set of data is or 13.

66. Ceiling and Floor Effects
Ceiling effects
Occur when scores can go no higher than an upper limit and “pile up” at the top
e.g., scores on an easy exam, as shown on the right
Causes negative skew
Floor effects
Occur when scores can go no lower than a lower limit and pile up at the bottom
e.g., household income
Causes positive skew

67. Skewed Frequency Distributions
Normal distribution (a)
Skewed right (b)
Fewer scores right of the peak
Positively skewed
Can be caused by a floor effect
Skewed left (c)
Fewer scores left of the peak
Negatively skewed
Can be caused by a ceiling effect

68. Understanding Descriptive Statistics
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Santrock, Educational Psychology, Second Edition, Classroom Update
Understanding Descriptive Statistics
The Normal Distribution: A “bell-shaped” curve in which most of the scores are clustered around the mean; the farther from the mean, the less frequently the score occurs.
15.68

69. Commonly Reported Test Scores Based on the Normal Curve
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Santrock, Educational Psychology, Second Edition, Classroom Update
Commonly Reported Test Scores Based on the Normal Curve
15.69

70. Z Scores
When values in a distribution are converted to Z scores, the distribution will have
Mean of 0
Standard deviation of 1
Useful
Allows variables to be compared to one another even when they are measured on different scales, have very different distributions, etc.
Provides a generalized standard of comparison

71. Z Scores
To compute a Z score, subtract the mean from a raw score and divide by the SD
To convert a Z score back to a raw score, multiply the Z score by the SD and then add the mean

72. The Normal Curve
Derived scores are used to specify where the individual score falls on the curve and how far above or below the mean the score falls
Raw scores are transformed into percentiles, stanine or other standard scores
All scoring scales are drawn parallel to the baseline of the normal curve; and use the deviation from the mean as the reference to compare an individual score with the mean score of a group
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

73. Percentile Ranks Percentiles represent the point on the normal curve
below which a percentage of test scores is distributed.
A student’s percentile rank on a test indicates the
percentage of students who scored lower in the
comparison group.
For example, if a student is ranked in the 55th percentile, the student’s score was 55% better than the comparison
group who took the test.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

74. Stanines Parents find stanine results easiest to understand
because their child’s standardized test scores
are reported as: 9  Very superior
8  Superior
7  Considerably above average
6  Slightly above average
5  Average
4  Slightly below average
3  Considerably below average
2  Poor
1  Very poor
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

75. Z Scores and T Scores Called standard scores
Report how many standard deviations a transformed raw score is located above or below the mean
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

76. Grade Equivalent Scores
Test publishers recommend that grade equivalents not
be used to report to parents because they may not
understand that the score does not mean the child
should be placed in a higher or lower grade.
Grade level results are compared with test results from grades above and below the grade, indicating whether the child performed above or below average.
The grade equivalent score does not indicate grade level placement in school.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

77. Reporting Standardized Test Results
Both norm- and criterion-referenced information can be
organized in a useful form.
Scores can be reported for an individual, a class, a grade, a school, and a district.
Strengths and weaknesses can be analyzed by content areas, by school, and by grade level.
Achievement can be compared over several years to determine long-term improvement or decline.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

78. Reporting Test Results to Parents
A parent–teacher conference may be used to report
test results.
The teacher should explain:
both the value and the limitations of the test scores
why the test was chosen
how the results will be used - for example, to plan appropriate learning experiences for their child
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

79. Advantages of Standardized Tests
Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced achievement tests provide valuable information regarding the effectiveness of curriculum and instruction.
Teachers can determine curriculum strengths and weaknesses.
Individual students’ reports determine who would benefit from additional instruction and those who are ready to move to more advanced learning experiences.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

80. Advantages of Standardized Tests
Standardized tests have unique qualities
that are advantageous:
Uniformity in test administration
Quantifiable scores
Norm referencing
Validity and reliability
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

81. Disadvantages of Standardized Tests
Standardized tests are not necessarily the best method of evaluation of young children.
A variety of strategies should be used in assessing children.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

82. Concerns About the Use of Standardized Tests
Use of tests with children from a different culture or whose first language is not English
Use of standardized tests to deny children entrance to school, or retention in grade
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

83. No Child Left Behind Act
Assessment of Students with Disabilities and/or
Limited English Proficiency (LEP)
NCLB requires that all students be assessed regardless of their special needs
Accommodations have been made for students with disabilities and for those who speak a language other than English or have limited English
Limitations of the tests designed for NCLB when used with these populations has become an issue
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

84. Standardized Tests Have Effects On Curriculum And Instruction
Standardized tests only sample a few of the curriculum objectives.
Pressures for higher test scores result in
limitations on the curriculum that is taught.
Instruction becomes focused on what will be tested and limits the balance of the curriculum.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

85. Misapplication of Test Results
Using of standardized tests to decide school entry or the placement into early childhood programs is inappropriate because:
tests do not differentiate between limited intelligence and limited opportunities to learn
decisions on enrollment, retention, and placement in special classes should never be based on a single test score
other sources of information, including systematic observation and samples of children’s work, should be a part of the evaluation process
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.