Chapter 3
Assessment for Identification
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LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
• Do not use just one assessment procedure.
• Make sure to use technically adequate instruments that meet
reliability and validity standards.
• Use nondiscriminatory assessment procedures.
• Administer tests in the most appropriate language and form.
• Tests should be administered by trained personnel.
• Larry P. v. Riles is an important California court case that
resulted in the prohibition of intelligence tests with AfricanAmerican students in California.
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NORM-REFERENCED TESTS: AN
OVERVIEW
• A norm-referenced test is a test in which a person’s performance
is compared to a specific reference group, usually by age or grade.
• The reference group that is used in a norm-referenced test is
known as the standardization sample.
• Derived score is a converted raw score that compares an
individual’s performance to those in the standardization sample.
• Standard score is a transformed raw score with a known mean
and standard deviation (usually a mean of 100 and standard
deviation of 15).
• The mean is the average score.
• Standard deviation is an indication of the variability of test scores.
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NORM-REFERENCED TESTS: AN
OVERVIEW
• Validity is the degree to which a test measures what it
purports to measure.
• Reliability is the consistency of a test.
• Standard error of measurement is the variability or error
involved in a test; you never actually obtain a person’s
“true” score in giving a test (i.e., there will almost always be
some variability in how a person scores if given a test twice).
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CONCEPTUAL MODELS OF
INTELLIGENCE
• James McKeen Cattell was the first person to use the term
mental test.
• Spearman viewed intelligence as consisting of a general factor
(g) and several specific factors (s).
• Thurstone viewed intelligence as consisting of several primary
mental abilities.
• Raymond Cattell coined the terms fluid intelligence and
crystallized intelligence.
• Abilities such as abstract thinking, drawing inferences, and
deductive/inductive reasoning constitute fluid intelligence.
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CONCEPTUAL MODELS OF
INTELLIGENCE
• Crystallized intelligence is the acquisition of learned
information.
• Simultaneous processing means integrating and synthesizing
spatial or analogic information.
• Successive processing is the arranging of stimuli in
sequential or serial order.
• Binet is a French psychologist who had a major impact on
intelligence testing.
• Wechsler is the author of several currently used intelligence
tests.
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INTELLIGENCE TESTS
• Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children is based on a model
of simultaneous and successive (sequential) processing and
the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model.
• Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale-5 is the latest edition of an
instrument dating originally from the 1900s.
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children is the most widely
used intelligence test for school-aged students.
• Woodcock-Johnson-III – Normative Update is based on the
Cattell-Horn-Carroll model; it also has an achievement
component.
• Intelligence tests measure intellectual performance not
intellectual potential.
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INTELLIGENCE TESTS
• Issues related to the examinee, which include factors such as
anxiety, test wiseness, and disability status, can affect test
performance.
• Issues related to the examiner are factors such as test
administration, interpretation differences, and scoring errors that
can affect test results.
• Test bias has different types, including mean difference bias, item
bias, and psychometric bias.
• AAIDD states that intelligence tests are one of only three major
components of identification and many factors affect the
interpretation of scores.
• There are alternatives to traditional intelligence tests that have
been developed based on theories of researchers such as Piaget,
Sternberg, and Gardner.
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INTELLIGENCE TESTS
• Static assessment procedures measure what an individual
has already learned.
• Dynamic assessment procedures use a test-train-retest
format to help determine how well a person can learn
information in a controlled setting.
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CONCEPT OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
• Adaptive behavior has been a component of the CID
definition since 1959.
• Adaptive behavior is a difficult concept to operationalize.
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ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR SCALES
• AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School Edition measures both
adaptive and maladaptive behavior.
• Scales of Independent Behavior include other components
such as a screening component and a correlated curriculum.
• Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales include a Survey Interview
Form, a Parent/Caregiver Rating Form, an Expanded Interview
Form, and a Teacher Rating Form.
• The Adaptive Behavior Assessment System can be used for
both the 2002 AAMR and the 2010 AAIDD definitions.
• The Supports Intensity Scale is designed to be used to identify
the appropriate level of support in the current AAIDD
classification system.
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