Exam 15: Standardized Tests and Teaching

Critics of state-mandated testing argue that such testing encourages teachers to teach for the test, thus focusing specifically on material expected to be on the exam rather than presenting a wider variety of material that teachers might think is worthwhile.

Very few state-mandated tests have criterion-referenced scoring.

Faculty members are discussing the value of state-mandated testing. Which member is stating a valid criticism of such testing?

Both aptitude tests and achievement tests have which of the following attributes in common?

A group of students received the following scores on a quiz: 24, 20, 20, 16, 15, 13, 13, 13, and 10. What is the mean?

A survey battery is a group of individualized subject matter tests designed for a particular level of students.

A person who gets the second-highest score of 20 people taking an exam would be assigned which percentile rank score?

How can you ensure your final exam has good reliability?

Mindy is on her way to school to take a test that will identify whether she will benefit from placement into gifted classes. What type of test will she take?

When a middle-class, white, male student takes a nationally standardized test, his final score is computed on the basis of a norm group of similar middle-class, white, male students.

Identify which three strategies are most important in communicating test results to parents. Be sure to support your choices.

Which of the following teachers holds the most accurate viewpoint on standardized tests?

When communicating test results to parents, it is best to avoid discussion of the student's strengths, weaknesses, and overall progress.

The mean is a measure of which of the following?

The extent to which a test yields the same performance when a student is given the same test on two different occasions is called which of the following?

Alternative assessment is more in line with the recent emphasis on what types of classrooms?

Achievement tests are best described as which of the following?

Suppose 1,000 students take a particular exam. Their scores follow a normal distribution and range from 50 to 95. Of the following values, which would most likely be the mode?

Students are happy that they will not have to go to classes today, but are not as excited that they have to spend most of the day taking a test to measure what they have learned at school. What type of test will they take?

Most state-mandated tests have criterion-referenced scoring.