Preschool and Educational Assessment

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Preschool and Educational Assessment

• PSY/SPED 572

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Testing Preschoolers

• Preschool birth to five
• Need to assess some children because of IDEA
• Find infants and toddlers that need services
• Provide them with services that continue into
  school
• Focus at this age is on a family plan
• Testing starts early
• APGAR
• Screening for needing assistance stabilizing
• Screening for possible neurological deficits

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Testing Preschoolers

• Checklists
• Presence or absence of behaviors
• Rating scales judgment of relative standing
• CBCL (Achenbach)
• BASC-2
• Conners Ratings Scales Revised
• Used as screening tools

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Testing Preschoolers

• IQ tests
• Stanford-Binet V
• WPPSI-III
• Developmental histories
• Interviews
• Role-plays

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Achievement Tests

• Achievement vs. aptitude
• General achievement measures
• Survey learning in more than one academic area
• WRAT-3
• WIAT-2
• Are standardized and norm-referenced
• May not reflect curriculum of local schools
• Takes years to develop

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Achievement Tests

• Specific achievement tests
• Measure skills in one area
• Tests of English proficiency
• TWOL
• TOLD
• CBA
• CTOPP

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Aptitude Tests (Other than IQ tests)

• Aptitude measure life learning
• Use to make predictions
• Serve as indicators of readiness
• Elementary
• Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT)
• Group administered
• Measures math and reading skills (e.g., letters)
• Secondary
• SAT, ACT
• Post-secondary
• GRE
• Miller Analogies Test
• MCAT
• LSAT

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Miller Analogies Test

• The sample analogies that follow are typical of
  those you will encounter when you take the MAT.
• SPRING RING COIL (a. rope, b. loop, c.
  cowl, d. stretch)
• 97 45 (a. obtuse, b. equilateral, c.
  angle, d. cosine) ACUTE
• MOLLUSK (a. fish, b. cell, c. plant, d. mammal)
  PEARL AMBERGRIS
• (a. epistemology, b. axiology, c. teleology, d.
  pedagogy) ONTOLOGY KNOWLEDGE BEING
• ELBOW NERVE HINGE (a. lever, b.
  electricity, c. fulcrum, d. wire)
• INDIVIDUAL MUNICIPALITY LOAN (a. county,
  b. bond, c. stock, d. certificate)
• HOMOPHONE (a. paradigm, b. antonym, c. synonym,
  d. acronym) SOUND MEANING
• (a. Rembrandt, b. Dalí, c. Cassatt, d. Matisse)
  MONET WHISTLER CÉZANNE
• IVE -ION ADJECTIVE (a. verb, b. noun, c.
  conjunction, d. adverb)
• CONSTITUTION MAGNA CARTA UNITED STATES (a.
  Pilgrims, b. Virginia, c. England, d. Rome)

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• For each item, the correct answer is given first
  in parentheses and is then followed by an
  explanation.
• (b. loop) A spring forms or has the shape of a
  coil, and a ring forms a loop.
• (a. obtuse) An acute angle is less than 90, so a
  45 angle is acute. An obtuse angle is between
  90 and 180, so a 97 angle is obtuse. Thus, 97
  is to 45 as obtuse is to acute.
• (d. mammal) Pearls are found in oysters, a type
  of mollusk ambergris is found in sperm whales, a
  type of mammal.
• (a. epistemology) In the discipline of
  philosophy, ontology is the branch that deals
  with the nature of being, and epistemology is the
  branch that deals with the nature of knowledge.
  (Axiology is the study of values teleology is
  the study of purpose in nature and pedagogy is
  the art of teaching.)
• (d. wire) The elbow of an arm and a hinge on a
  door or gate function similarly a nerve (a
  cordlike bundle of fibers) functions in the
  nervous system similar to the way a wire
  functions in an electrical system.
• (b. bond) An individual borrows money by
  obtaining a loan a municipality borrows money by
  issuing a bond.
• (c. synonyms) Words that have the same sound are
  called homophones words that have the same
  meaning are called synonyms.
• (c. Cassatt) Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne were
  two French painters, and Mary Cassatt and James
  Whistler were two American painters, all of whom
  were born in the nineteenth century and lived
  into the early twentieth century. (Rembrandt,
  Dalí, and Matisse were all painters, but they
  were Dutch, Spanish, and French respectively.)
• (b. noun) The suffix -ive is used to form an
  adjective denoting action the suffix -ion is
  used to form a noun denoting action.
• (c. England) The Constitution is the defining
  political and legal document of the United
  States the Magna Carta was a political charter
  granted by the King of England in which basic
  rights were delineated.

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Diagnostic Tests

• Used to pinpoint difficulties for remedial
  purposes
• Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised
• KeyMath-Revised
• Stanford Diagnostic Tests

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Psychoeducational Batteries

• Measure academic skills and abilities related to
  academic success
• K-ABC
• Includes subtests on intelligence and achievement
• Ages 3-18
• Based on CHC or information processing model of
  intelligence

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Psychoeducational Batteries

• Differential Abilities Scale (DAS)
• Ages 26-17
• Hierarchical model base
• Designed primarily for differential diagnosis and
  treatment planning
• 20 subtests which are given depends upon age
• Flexibility to test outside of age levels with
  appropriate norms

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Psychoeducational Batteries

• Woodcock-Johnson III
• Ages 2-90
• CHC theory
• Considered one of the best tests available
• Can use cognitive and achievement batteries
  separately

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Other types of assessment

• Minimum competency
• E.g., for high school graduation
• Performance assessment
• Requires more than selection of a response
• Portfolios
• Authentic assessment
• Peer appraisal peer group makes evaluation
• Measuring study habits, interests, and attitudes
  toward school
• Academic Competence Evaluation Scales