PS397
Psychological
Measurement & Testing
Educational Testing Service (ETS)
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Administers more than 11 million
tests annually in 181 countries
Tests include:
• SAT
• GRE
For the Love of Learning:
Report of the Royal Commission on Learning,
Ontario, 1995
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Various forms of assessment have shown that those who
are poor, members of some minority groups, or who are
female perform less well than their knowledge or skills
would warrant. Some communities complain that their
students have been negatively streamed because of biased
assessments. For example, more than a decade ago, a York
University symposium on racial and ethnic relations in city
school boards was told by Marcela Duran that
“we were able to institute an experimental program, in cooperation with the Jamaican-Canadian Association, in which
100 West Indian children who had been placed in vocational
schools were re-assessed, using different testing
instruments. According to this process, 90 of these students
were found to have been wrongly placed.”
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Our students are tested to an extent
that is unprecedented in American
history and unparalleled anywhere in
the world. Politicians and
businesspeople, determined to get
tough with students and teachers,
have increased the pressure to raise
standardized test scores.
Unfortunately, the effort to do so
typically comes at the expense of
more meaningful forms of learning.
That disturbing conclusion emerges
from Alfie Kohn's devastating new
indictment of standardized testing.
Drawing from the latest research, he
concisely explains just how little test
results really tell us and just how
harmful a test-driven curriculum can
be.
Alfie Kohn’s Critique of Testing
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high scores often signify relatively superficial thinking
a school that improves its test results may well have lowered its
standards to do so
far from helping to "close the gap," the use of standardized
testing is most damaging for low-income and minority students
as much as 90 percent of the variations in test scores among
schools or states have nothing to do with the quality of instruction
far more meaningful measures of student learning - or school
quality - are available.
Kohn's central message is that standardized tests are "not like the
weather, something to which we must resign ourselves. . . . They
are not a force of nature but a force of politics-and political
decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed."
The EQAO
(Education Quality & Accountability Office)
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Created in 1996 to oversee the provincial
testing program instituted at that time
All grade 3 & 6 students tested in reading,
writing & math
All grade 9 students tested in
mathematics
All grade 10 students tested in literacy
Current budget: $50 million annually, over
$250 million over the last five years
Ontario English Catholic Teachers
Association, March 2002
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How many schools would $250
million build? How many repairs
would it accomplish on existing
buildings? How many library books
would it buy? Could every child have
their own copy of their textbooks?
How many assistants could there be
for children with special needs?
Other Criticisms
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EQAO does not publish detailed
technical reports along with the
results
The precise statistical procedures
that were being used, the degree of
reliability of markers evidenced in
their scoring, and the confidence
intervals of the scores, remain
undisclosed
Course Objectives
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Help you understand some of the fundamental
principles underlying psychological measurement
and testing.
Provide you with experience in constructing and
evaluating psychological tests and measures.
Familiarize you with many of the more commonly
used psychological tests.
Acquaint you with some of the important ethical
and political issues relating to psychological
testing.
Text
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Kaplan, R.M. & Sacuzzo, D.P. (2005).
Psychological testing: Principles,
applications, and issues (sixth
edition). Pacific Grove, CA:
Brooks/Cole.
Additional readings may be assigned
for some of the classes.
Course Requirements
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Brief assignments & class
participation (10%)
Mid-term test (30%)
Test construction project (20%)
Final exam (40%)
Lectures & Course Components
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The course is divided into 2 parts:
• Part I (up until the mid-term)
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Principles of testing, psychometrics & testrelated statistics, reliability, validity, test
construction techniques
• Part II (after the mid-term)
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Applications & the ethics & politics of testing
Review of major tests of intelligence,
vocational interest, personality, etc.
Lectures & Class Notes
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For Part I of the course, I will not be
using PowerPoint to present the
course material
For Part II of the course, I will be
using PowerPoint, and the notes will
be available from my web-site
Key Dates
February 8
Test construction session
February 15
Mid-term test
February 19-23
Reading week
March 1
March 29
Group-constructed tests
due for printing
Test administration
session
Test report due
April 9 - 27
Exam period
March 8
Testing: Key Terms
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Test
• a measurement device or technique used to quantify
behaviour or aid in the understanding & prediction of
behaviour
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Item
• a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly;
this response can be scored or evaluated (for example,
classified, graded on a scale or counted); the specific
questions or problems that make up a test
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Psychological Test
• a set of items designed to measure characteristics of
human beings that pertain to behaviour (overt or
observable, or covert, such as feelings, thoughts &
attitudes)
Key Terms (continued)
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individual tests
• given to one person at a time
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group tests
• administered to more than one person
at a time
Types of Tests
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Ability Tests (measure skills in
terms of speed, accuracy)
• Achievement (measures previous
learning)
• Aptitude (measures potential for
acquiring a specific skill)
• Intelligence (measures potential to
solve problems, adapt to changing
circumstances, profit from experience)
Types of Tests (continued)
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Personality tests (measure typical
behaviour – traits, temperaments,
dispositions)
• Structured (objective) – provides a selfreport statement to which a person
responds “true” or “false”, “agree” or
“disagree”
• Projective – provides an ambiguous test
stimulus; response requirements are
unclear
Individual Differences
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Most tests are designed to discover
differences among individuals
(“individual differences”)
Basic assumption of testing is that
differences in test results reflect real
differences in individuals
E.g., individuals who score higher on
an IQ test assumed to be more
intelligent
A Brief History of Testing
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Chinese civil service
tests (1368 to 1644
C.E.)
Darwin, Galton &
individual differences
(mid to late 1800’s)
Binet & the
intelligence test
(1905)
Stanford Achievement
Test (1923)
Sir
Francis
Galton
Alfred
Binet
History of Testing (cont’d)
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Personality tests
(1930’s & 1940’s)
George Gallup &
the opinion poll
(1935)
Hermann
Rorschach
(1884-1922)
George
Gallup
(1901-1984)