Deck 12: Understanding and Interpreting Standardized Test Results

Question 1

You receive the standardized test scores for Muhammed and learn that he has gotten a percentile rank of 75 on the geography subtest. You should conclude that Muhammed:

A)Performed better than 75% of the students at all grade levels who took the test.
B)Performed better than 75% of the students at his grade level who took the test.
C)Answered 75% of the questions on the subtest correctly.
D)Responded to only 75% of the questions on the subtest.

Answer 1

Performed better than 75% of the students at his grade level who took the test.

Question 2

Why are standard scores often preferred to percentile ranks?

A)Because parents with little knowledge of mathematics can understand them
B)Because they always have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15
C)Because they more accurately reflect ability differences among students
D)Because they give us a better idea of what students do and do not know

Answer 2

Because they more accurately reflect ability differences among students

Question 3

Which one of the following best characterizes how confidence intervals are used in reporting students' scores on standardized tests?

A)They indicate the norm group to which students are being compared.
B)They show the range of 10 percentile points within which each student's score falls.
C)They indicate how likely it is that each student has mastered a particular topic.
D)They show the range within which each student's actual ability level probably lies.

Answer 3

They show the range within which each student's actual ability level probably lies.

Question 4

Which one of the following test scores is farthest from the mean?

A)A z-score of 3
B)An SAT score of 600
C)A stanine of 7
D)An IQ score of 120

Question 5

Approximately how many students will typically get scores within one standard deviation of the mean (either above or below the mean)on a standardized achievement test?

A)About two-thirds of them
B)About one-third of them
C)About 20% of them
D)About half of them

Question 6

When an assessment instrument has a norm group,you know that it:

A)Has cutoffs regarding what is acceptable performance.
B)Has a distribution of test scores that fit a bell curve.
C)Can be interpreted with reference to others who have taken the assessment.
D)Comes with a manual that provides information about reliability and validity.

Question 7

David takes an intelligence test,and gets an IQ score of 85. What is David's approximate percentile rank on this test?

A)5th percentile
B)16th percentile
C)34th percentile
D)65th percentile

Question 8

When we represent students' test performance in terms of standard scores,we must first know the standard deviation of those scores. This statistic tells us:

A)What the average student's performance was.
B)How close together or far apart the scores are.
C)Whether the test has high predictive validity.
D)Whether the test has high reliability.

Question 9

Which one of the following statements best describes how a standard score is derived?

A)By identifying the grade level to which the student's test performance is most similar
B)By counting the total number of points the student has earned on all test items
C)By determining how far from average the student's raw score is in terms of standard deviation units
D)By finding out how many students at the same age or grade level obtained lower scores

Question 10

Magnolia,who is in sixth grade,gets an NCE score of 87 on a standardized mathematics achievement test for sixth graders. You should conclude that Magnolia:

A)Has mastered most of the concepts in her school's sixth-grade math curriculum.
B)Probably hasn't yet mastered basic addition and subtraction facts.
C)Did better on the test than most of her peers.
D)Performed at a lower level on the test than most of her peers.

Question 11

Which one of the following best describes how an age-equivalent score for a standardized achievement test is determined?

A)The student's performance is compared to standards for the age-group identified by experts in child development.
B)The student's performance is compared to the average performance of students at various age levels.
C)The student's performance is compared to that of other students at the same age level,and a percentile rank is calculated.
D)The student's performance is compared to that of other students at the same age level,and a criterion-referenced score is calculated.

Question 12

A student's test performance is sometimes indicated by a confidence interval rather than by a single score. The rationale behind this practice is that:

A)The computation of a single score is not possible for some tests.
B)A single test score is almost always subject to error.
C)Some tests have extremely vague scoring criteria.
D)Tests typically have low reliability.

Question 13

Which one of the following statements most accurately characterizes IQ scores?

A)In the range of scores between 90 and 110,more people get a score of 110 than any other score.
B)If you divide an IQ score by 2,you get a person's percentile rank on the intelligence test from which the score was obtained.
C)The average score is 100,with equal numbers of people getting every score between 70 and 130.
D)The average score is 100,with many people getting scores near 100 and fewer people getting scores farther away.

Question 14

Todd takes an achievement test that yields standard scores. The mean of the test scores is 200,and the standard deviation is 50. If Todd does better than 84% of the people his age who take the test,his standard score is:

A)150.
B)200.
C)250.
D)300.

Question 15

As a second-grade teacher,you receive the standardized achievement test scores for Molly and discover that she has gotten a grade-equivalent score of 4 on the reading subtest. You should conclude that Molly:

A)Had slightly below-average performance on the subtest.
B)Exhibited performance in the "gifted" range on the subtest.
C)Performed as well as the average fourth grader on the subtest.
D)Answered 40% of the questions on the subtest correctly.

Question 16

Which one of the following reflects the use of a grade-equivalent score?

A)Ms. Eskers's fifth graders are given a writing achievement test in which they are compared to norms for a variety of grade levels.
B)Mr. Rosenthal's fifth graders are given a mathematics achievement test in which they are compared to a norm group consisting only of fifth graders.
C)Mr. Huang's eighth graders are given a physical fitness test in which their scores are reported in terms of the percentage of people getting the same or lower score.
D)Ms. Richard's eighth-grade students are given a history achievement test for which each student's test performance is compared to students at exactly the same age level.

Question 17

Greg took the district-wide achievement test and got a stanine score of 9. Which one of the following is closest to Greg's percentile rank?

A)14
B)16
C)84
D)98

Question 18

What is the major drawback of using percentile ranks to describe students' performance on a standardized test?

A)Even many low-achieving students tend to get above-average percentile scores.
B)Percentiles tend to underestimate how much students have actually learned.
C)Because most students get fairly low scores,they become easily discouraged and their self-efficacy decreases.
D)Students in the middle range can be quite similar in achievement and yet have scores that are somewhat dissimilar.

Question 19

As a third-grade teacher,you receive the standardized test scores for Marie and learn that she has gotten a stanine of 1 on the spelling subtest and a stanine of 3 on the math subtest. You should conclude that Marie:

A)Performed below average among her peers on both subtests.
B)Performed above average among her peers on both subtests.
C)Performed below grade level on the spelling subtest,but at grade level on the math subtest.
D)Had below-average performance on the spelling subtest,but above-average performance on the math subtest.

Question 20

Three of the following are true statements about age- and/or grade-equivalent scores. Which statement is false?

A)They tell us which students should be moved to a higher or lower grade level.
B)If Mary gets an age-equivalent score of 10,she has performed as well as the average 10-year-old.
C)If John gets a grade-equivalent score of 5,he has performed as well as the average fifth grader.
D)They are sometimes used inappropriately as standards for all students' achievement.