Achievement Test Standardized Achievement Literacy 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student scores at the 72nd percentile on a reading achievement test. What does this mean?
- The student answered 72% of questions correctly
- The student scored higher than 72% of the norm group (Correct answer)
- The student is in the 72nd grade equivalent
- The student missed 28 questions
Correct answer: The student scored higher than 72% of the norm group
A percentile rank indicates the percentage of students in the norm group who scored at or below that score.
Question 2: Which type of score directly shows the proportion of test items a student answered correctly?
- Scaled score
- Raw score percentage (Correct answer)
- Grade equivalent
- Normal curve equivalent
Correct answer: Raw score percentage
A raw score percentage (or percent correct) shows exactly what fraction of items a student got right.
Question 3: On a standardized achievement test, 'content validity' refers to:
- Whether the test predicts future performance
- Whether test items adequately represent the domain being measured (Correct answer)
- Whether scores are consistent across administrations
- Whether the test was normed on a diverse sample
Correct answer: Whether test items adequately represent the domain being measured
Content validity concerns how well test items sample the full range of knowledge or skills in the target domain.
Question 4: A school district wants to compare its students' math achievement to a national sample. Which score type is most useful?
- Raw scores
- Percentage correct scores
- Norm-referenced percentile ranks (Correct answer)
- Criterion-referenced mastery scores
Correct answer: Norm-referenced percentile ranks
Norm-referenced percentile ranks situate student performance relative to a national comparison group.
Question 5: What is the primary purpose of a criterion-referenced achievement test?
- To rank students against each other
- To determine whether students have mastered specific skills or standards (Correct answer)
- To predict college readiness
- To measure intelligence
Correct answer: To determine whether students have mastered specific skills or standards
Criterion-referenced tests measure performance against a fixed standard or set of skills rather than against other test-takers.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes a 'stanine' score?
- A score on a 1–10 scale with equal intervals
- A nine-point normalized standard score scale (Correct answer)
- A score that equals the student's grade level in years
- A score expressed as a ratio to the class average
Correct answer: A nine-point normalized standard score scale
Stanines divide the normal distribution into nine bands, with stanine 5 at the center and each band roughly half a standard deviation wide.
Question 7: A teacher notices that a reading test's reliability coefficient is 0.58. This suggests:
- The test is highly consistent
- The test has acceptable reliability for high-stakes decisions
- The test results may not be very consistent or dependable (Correct answer)
- The test measures exactly what it claims to measure
Correct answer: The test results may not be very consistent or dependable
A reliability coefficient of 0.58 is considered low; high-stakes tests typically require coefficients above 0.90.
Achievement Test Standardized Achievement Literacy 2
A student scores at the 72nd percentile on a reading achievement test.
What does this mean?