Assessment Definitions

Freidrich Nietzsche once commented, "Whatever does not destroy me makes me stronger." In the spirit of such courageous optimism, we offer a short introduction to some of the more widely used assessment tests on the market. Take a deep breath, relax, and remember the sage words of Nietzsche.

Adult Basic Learning Examination (ABLE)
Authors: Bjorn Gardner, Eric F. Karlsen
Publisher: Harcourt Education Measurements, 1986
To order: (800) 211-8378

The ABLE is a battery of tests that measures the general grade level of adults who have not completed 12 years of schooling. There is also a version of the ABLE that tests for adults who have had at least 8 years of school, but have not graduated. The ABLE tests learners for vocabulary, reading comprehension, spelling, number operations, and problem solving.

Adult Measure of Essential Skills (AMES)
Authors: Riverside Publishing House
Publisher: Steck-Vaughn, 1998
To order: (800) 531-5015

The AMES is a battery of assess-ments designed to measure basic workplace and educational skills. Its focus is on adults who may or may not have graduated from high school. The multiple-choice questions, which are administered on five levels, are meant to reflect real-life experiences encountered at school, work, and within the community.

Diagnostic Assessment of Reading with Trial Teaching Strategies (DARTTS)
Authors: Florence G. Roswell, Jeanne S. Chall
Publisher: Riverside Publishing, 1992
To order: (800) 323-9540

The DARTTS diagnostic assess-ment is a kit packaged in a file box. There are two components: the Diagnostic Assessment of Reading, or DAR, which provides diagnostic information on a learner's ability to comprehend reading and language, including word recognition, oral reading, word analysis, silent reading comprehension, and spelling. The second component is the Trial Teaching Strategies, which identifies students' needs through the use of microteaching sessions.

Basic English Skills Test (BEST)
Author: Dorry Kenyon
Publisher: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1986
To order: (202) 362-3740

The BEST test was initially devel-oped by the Federal Office for Refugee Resettlement and its Mainstream English Language Training Project during the early eighties refugee influx. It is designed as a life skills, task-based assess-ment that has two sections. The first section is an oral interview, which assesses listening comprehension, pronunciation, communication, and fluency. The second part is a literacy section, which assesses reading and writing.

Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE)
Authors: John P. Sabatini and others
Publisher: CTB/McGraw-Hill, 1994
To order: (800) 538-9547

The TABE test is designed to be used in conjunction with ABE/GED classes, in order to determine a student's initial functioning level, or grade equivalent, upon entry into the program. There is also a TABE Work-Related Problem Solving component, called Forms 7 and 8, and these can be administered either in conjunction with the TABE, or separately. Forms 7 and 8 are meant to provide employers, professional trainers, and educators with an assessment of how learners handle various problem-solving tasks. There is also a Spanish TABE , which is designed for assessing basic reading, math, and language skills in adults whose primary language is Spanish.

Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS)
Author: CASAS
Publisher: CASAS
To order: (800) 255-1036

CASAS is a broad ranging, functional assessment system that measures literacy skills and their application is real-life situations, which they call "Competencies." Some of the Competencies the CASAS measures are basic communication, occupa-tional knowledge, community resources, health, and independent living skills. In total, there are over 4,000 items in the CASAS test bank, and this allows for the creation of customized tests to given objectives and difficulty levels.

Fair Test: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing

Fair Test is an advocacy organization devoted to ensuring the fair, accurate, and unbiased admin- istering of standardized tests. They produce a quarterly newsletter, as well as a catalog of test information, for both K-12 and university educators. Their Web site, , is an excellent starting place for information on current educational policies and testing research.

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Assessment Definitions

compiled by Justine Sadoff

Authentic assessment, construct validity, equal-interval scale: reading a few assessment definitions can force a person to ask that great existential question Dionne Warwick posed back in the sixties, "What's it all about, Alfie?" Given that many of the definitions listed below often come attached with varying perspectives on what they should mean exactly, we present them more in the spirit of "cooperative dialogue," rather than as definitive statements. At the very least, we hope it will benefit teachers to get acquainted with some of the concepts and terms currently popping up around the issue of assessment.

Authentic Assessment
"Assessment is authentic when we directly examine student performance on worthy intellectual tasks.. Authentic assessments present the student with the full array of tasks that mirror the priorities and challenges found in the best instructional activities."

Bias
"A situation that occurs in testing when items systematically measure differently for different ethnic, gender, or age groups. Test developers reduce bias by analyzing item data separately for each group, then identifying and discarding items that appear to be biased."

Construct Validity
"The test measures the `right' psychological conditions. Intelligence, self-esteem and creativity are examples of such psychological traits. Evidence in support of construct validity can take many forms. One approach is to demonstrate that the items within a measure are inter-related and therefore measure a single construct. Inter-correlation and factor analysis are often used to demonstrate relationships among the items. Another approach is to demonstrate that the test behaves as one would expect a measure of the construct to behave. For example, one might expect a measure of creativity to show a greater correlation with a measure of artistic ability than with a measure of scholastic achievement."

Content Validity
"Content validity refers to the extent to which the test questions represent the skills in the specified subject area. Content validity is often evaluated by examining the plan and procedures used in test construction. Did the test development procedure follow a rational approach that ensures appropriate content? How similar is this content to the content you are interested in testing?"

Norms
"The average or typical scores on a test for members of a specified group. They are usually presented in tabular form for a series of different homogenous groups."

Performance Assessment
"Performance assessment, also known as alternative or authentic assessment, is a form of testing that requires students to perform a task rather than select an answer from a ready-made list."

"Performance assessment [is an] activity that requires students to construct a response, create a product, or perform a demonstration. Usually there are multiple ways that an exam-inee can approach a performance assess-ment and more than one correct answer."

Predictive Validity
"In terms of achievement tests, predictive validity refers to the extent to which a test can be used to draw inferences regarding achievement. Empirical evidence in support of predictive validity must include a comp-arison of performance on the validated test against performance on outside criteria."

Reliability
"The consistency of test scores obtained by the same individuals on different occasions or with different sets of equivalent items; accuracy of scores."

"Fundamental to the evaluation of any instrument is the degree to which test scores are free from measurement error and are consistent from one occasion to another. Sources of measurement error, which include fatigue, nervousness, content sampling, answering mistakes, misinterpreting instruc-tions and guessing, contribute to an individual's score and lower a test's reliability."

Rubrics
"These are specific sets of criteria that clearly define for both student and teacher what a range of acceptable and unacceptable performance looks like. Criteria define descriptors of ability at each level of performance and assign values to each level. Levels referred to are proficiency levels which describe a continuum from excellent to unacceptable product."

These definitions are taken from:
    "Questions to Ask When Evaluating Tests" (ERIC Digest), www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed385607.html
    CTB McGraw-Hill, www.ctb.com/about_assessment
    Downing, Chuck. (1995). Ruminating on Rubrics. (Online). Access Excellence. www.accessexcellence.com/21st/SER/JA/rubrics.html.

Justine Sadoff is the former Project Coordinator for the SABES Central Resource Center at World Education.