CPCE Assessment & Testing

Measurement

general process of determining the dimensions of an attribute

Assessment

processes and procedures for collecting information about human behavior

Appraisal

the process of assessing or estimating attributes, used interchangebly with evaluation

Assesment Tools

tests, inventories, rating scales, observation, interview data and other techniques

Interpretation

making a statement about the meaning or usefulness of measurement data according to the professional counselor’s knowledge and judgement

Measures of Cental Tendency

a distribution of scores examined using the following measures: mean, median, and mode

Percentile

a value below which a specified percentage of cases fall in a distribution, often used to interpret scores in standardized testing.

Stanine

converts a ditribution of scores into 9 parts with a mean of 5 and a standard deviation of 2, often used in educational assessment.

z-score

standardinzed score mean is 0; the standard deviation is 1, used to determine relative position within a distribution

t-score

mean of this distribution is 50; the standard deviation is 10, used to compare scores across different tests or assessments. Negative scores are eliminated, unlike z-scores

Correlation coeffiecient

a statistical measure that describes the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables, ranging from -1 to +1, tells you nothing about cause & effect

Reliability

consistency of a test measure; degree to which a test produces stable and consistent results over repeated administrations.

Stability

test-retestreliability, measuring consistency over time; 2 weeks is a good time between test administrations

Equivalence

alternate forms of the same test are administered to the same group of test-takers to assess reliability/consistency between the different forms

Coefficient of Determination

degree of common variance, index that results from squaring the correlation

Coefficient of Nondetermination

unique variance, not common, represents the error variance

Standard error of measurement (SEM)

another measure of reliability and useful in interpreting the test scores of individual, helps determine the range within which an individual’s test score probably falls

Validity

the degree to which a test measures what it purports to measure for the specific purpose for which it is used, situation specific, number one factor in the construction of a test.

Face Validity

the instrument looks valid

Content

instrument contains itmes drawn from the domain of items which could be included

Predicitive Validity

predictions made by the test are confirmed by later behavior (criterion)

Concurrent Validity

results of the test are compared with other tests’ results or behaviors (criteria) at or about the same time

Construct Validity

the extent it measures some hypothetical construct such as anxiety, creativity, etc.

Convergent validation

occurs when there is high correlation between the construct under investigation and others

Discriminant validation

occurs when there is no significant correlation between the construct under investigation and others

Normative Format

each item is independent of all other items

Tests may be…

valid but not reliable (valid tests are reliable), power-based, or speed-based

Power Based

no time limits or very generous ones

Speed Based

times, and the emphasis is palced on speed and accurace

Norm Referenced Assessment

comparing individuals to others who have take the test before

Criterion Referenced Assessment

comparng an individual’s performance to some predetermned criterion, sometimes called doman referenced

Ispatively Interpreted

comparing the results on test wthin the individual, no comparison with others, within person analysis

Regression towards the mean

if one earns a very low score (15% or lower) or a very high score (85% or higher) on a pretest, the individual will probably earn a score closer to the mean on the posttest