CHAPTER 16
Standardized Achievement Tests
ITEMS
1. What do scores from a multilevel achievement battery measure?
(a) Students’ growth in each of several curriculum areas.
(b) The depth of students’ achievement in a single curriculum area.
(c) Students’ status in each of several grade levels.
(d) The discrepancies between local and national curricula.
2. All standardized achievement tests are multilevel survey batteries.
(a) True
(b) False
3. The typical multilevel achievement battery uses different test items for each grade level.
(a) True
(b) False
4. What is the major advantage to a classroom teacher of knowing the students’ scores on a
standardized multilevel achievement battery?
(a) Students can be compared with one another.
(b) Students can be compared with national norms.
(c) Students’ relative strengths and weaknesses in different curriculum areas can be
determined.
(d) The grade level at which students are functioning can be determined.
5. What is the major problem to a classroom teacher when interpreting student’ scores on a
standardized multilevel achievement battery?
(a) The test items cover several grades.
(b) The content of some of the items may not have been taught.
(c) The norms may not match the local school population.
(d) Special norm-referenced scores are used.
6. Multilevel survey test publishers describe how well their products match local curriculum
frameworks.
(a) True
(b) False
7. When would it be more advantageous to use a multilevel criterion-referenced test than a
multilevel survey battery?
(a) When you want to compare a student’s performance over different curriculum areas.
(b) When you want to assess a student’s growth from one year to the next.
(c) When comparing students to the national norm is the goal.
(d) When you want to know detailed information about the student’s knowledge of specific
learning objectives.
8. An important advantage of administering a test that was developed using empirical research is
that
(a) better quality test items comprise the test.
(b) norm-referenced data are available.
(c) costs are kept lower due to research efficiencies.
9. Are the national norms provided by different standardized achievement test publishers essentially
equivalent?
(a) Yes
(b) No
10. Are the grade-equivalents scores you obtain from the reading test of one publisher pretty much
the same as you would obtain from the reading tests of other publishers?
(a) Yes
(b) No
11. Most of the major standardized achievement test batteries include options for performance tasks
as well as multiple-choice items.
(a) True
(b) False
12. All major standardized achievement test batteries report students’ percentile ranks, grade-
equivalent scores, and expanded standard scores.
(a) True
(b) False
13. Even though different publishers of standardized achievement batteries use different techniques
for creating developmental scales, the scales are quite closely equivalent.
(a) True
(b) False
14. Often, different standardized achievement tests have subtests with the same name (e.g., reading)
that contain items assessing quite different content and skills.
(a) True
(b) False
15. Different standardized achievement test batteries overlap most schools’ curricula to a very high
degree.
(a) True
(b) False
16. If you use the tests that come with the curriculum materials and textbooks you have adopted, you
can usually be assured that their content will match what was covered in class.
(a) True
(b) False
17. If you use tests that come with your curriculum materials and textbooks you can usually be
assured that you have very good quality test items.
(a) True
(b) False
18. An advantage of using the tests that come with your curriculum materials is that you shorten the
time needed to craft assessments.
(a) True
(b) False
19. Very often the validity of your interpretations of students’ test scores is lower when you use tests
that come with your curriculum materials than when you craft your own assessment tasks.
(a) True
(b) False
20. The major advantage of crafting your own assessment tasks instead of using published
assessment tasks is that your assessment will better match what you taught.
(a) True
(b) False
21. For which of the following purposes can a teacher use standardized achievement tests?
(a) Describing a student’s educational development.
(b) Ascertaining whether a student has a desired prerequisite level of learning.
(c) Describing students’ curriculum strengths and weaknesses.
(d) All of the above
(e) Only (a) and (c)
22. Standardized achievement tests are a supplementary source of information to support teachers’
observations of students’ educational development.
(a) True
(b) False
23. Standardized achievement tests provide useful information that may be part of a study of whether
a local district needs to change its curriculum.
(a) True
(b) False
24. Reporting a school’s standardized test results to the school board without describing the other
characteristics of the school and its students is an unethical assessment practice.
(a) True
(b) False
25. Sally, a grade six student, performed very poorly on a standardized achievement test she took in
the fall. Based only on this performance, her teacher decided to put her in remedial programs.
The action of the teacher constitutes inappropriate use of standardized achievement tests.
(a) True
(b) False
26. Dan’s parents blamed his poor standardized test performance on the teacher. Is it appropriate to
hold the teacher responsible for Dan’s poor standardized test performance?
(a) Yes, if the teacher had the sole responsibility of teaching Dan that year.
(b) No, because the teacher is only one of a number of factors that influence Dan’s learning.
(c) No, because teachers should not be held accountable for students’ learning.
27. When selecting a standardized test for a secondary school, school officials should focus on
locating a test that assesses educational development in a few broad areas instead of more specific
curriculum subjects.
(a) True
(b) False
28. Small deviations from the instructions for administering a standardized achievement test are
acceptable provided that they make test administration more practical than was suggested by the
publisher.
(a) True
(b) False
29. It is definitely wrong to set an educational goal that expects all students to be at or above grade
level in a subject area determined by a standardized test’s national norms.
(a) True
(b) False
30. Which of the following should school officials give greatest priority when selecting a
standardized achievement test for use in a particular school district?
(a) The match between the test content and the district’s curriculum.
(b) The test’s reliability and validity as reported in the manual.
(c) The practicality of test administration for teachers and administrators.
(d) The normative data provided by the publisher.
31. At the secondary school level, use of a standardized achievement test should be guided, among
other things, by the consideration of continuous educational growth over the grades.
(a) True
(b) False
32. Any deviation by the teacher from directions for administering a standardized achievement test
would
(a) lead to the reduction of the validity of the results of the test.
(b) necessarily affect the reliability of the test.
(c) make the administration of the test less practical.
33. Which of the following activities is (are) OPTIONAL for a teacher when preparing to administer
a standardized achievement test?
(a) Familiarizing oneself with the administration instructions.
(b) Informing the students about the purpose of the upcoming test and what they will be
doing.
(c) Ensuring that the physical environment of the testing room is conducive to maximum
performance.
(d) All of the above are optional.
(e) None of the above is optional.
34. During the time that students are taking a standardized achievement test the teacher should ensure
that all students
(a) work at the same pace.
(b) work on the correct pages and record their answers properly.
(c) understand the types of decisions for which the results will be used.
35. Why is it considered unethical to give students practice on the same test items that they are going
to be administered later?
(a) It reduces the achievement inferences you can make from the test results.
(b) It does not afford the student the opportunity to learn.
(c) It is not the responsibility of the teacher to give practice tests.
36. A test is said to be standardized if it serves as a standard against which students’ performance is
compared.
(a) True
(b) False
37. Generalization of assessment results refers to
(a) making inference from the specific tasks a student performs on a test to the broad domain
of learning implied by the curriculum.
(b) how general the test has been in assessing learning objectives.
(c) predicting how well students will perform on the standardized test in question.
38. State-mandated assessment programs that hold schools accountable for test results
(a) never hold individual students accountable.
(b) are likely to include large-scale performance assessments.
(c) are focused on improvement over time.
39. Which of the following standardized test computer reports would be most useful for an
elementary school teacher to use when planning the mathematics teaching sequence for the
upcoming year?
(a) student (home) report
(b) school (building) report
(c) group item analysis (cluster) report
40. If you wanted to know how a specific fourth-grade teacher’s class did on multiple-step
mathematics problems compared to the average of all fourth-grade teachers in a particular school,
which standardized test computer report would you consult?
(a) student (home) report
(b) school (building) report
(c) group item analysis (cluster) report
41. If you wanted to know how well the average standardized test scores of fourth-graders in a
particular school compared to the fourth graders in the rest of the school district and in the nation,
which standardized test computer report would you consult?
(a) student (home) report
(b) school (building) report
(c) group item analysis (cluster) report
42. An individual student’s percentile rank on the recently administered standardized test is likely to
be found on which computer report?
(a) student (home) report
(b) school (building) report
(c) group item analysis (cluster) report
43. A state wants to have a standardized test that specifically assesses the standards the state has
adopted. What is the most likely way this test would be developed?
(a) The state would develop it in-house using the staff it hires.
(b) The state would ask another state with similar standards if it could have permission to use
its tests.
(c) The state would put out a request for testing companies to bid on developing the test for
the state.
(d) The state would ask teachers in all of the schools to submit test items that matched the
standards, then select from that pool enough items for its test.
44. A state has its own mandated accountability test. Your school district wants to use an additional
standardized test. Which of the following is a recommendation by the Brookhart and Nitko
textbook as the school district deliberates what test to adopt?
(a) Use a test that assesses the same grades as the state test.
(b) Use the test for no more than three years.
(c) Use a test that reflects the concerns of the community.
(d) Limit testing to reading and mathematics.
CHAPTER 16
Answers and Classification of Items