Selective Test Assessment and Evaluation Methods 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is an example of criterion-referenced assessment?
- Ranking students from highest to lowest score
- Determining whether a student can read at a 5th-grade level (Correct answer)
- Comparing a student's score to the national average
- Selecting the top 10% of applicants
Correct answer: Determining whether a student can read at a 5th-grade level
Criterion-referenced assessments measure performance against a fixed standard or set of skills, not against other students.
Question 2: An instructor creates a test based on a table of specifications. What is the main purpose of this table?
- To ensure the test is timed correctly
- To align test questions with instructional objectives and content areas (Correct answer)
- To randomize question order
- To set a curve for grading
Correct answer: To align test questions with instructional objectives and content areas
A table of specifications maps test questions to learning objectives and content, ensuring the test covers instruction proportionally.
Question 3: Which type of question format is MOST effective for assessing higher-order thinking such as analysis or evaluation?
- Multiple-choice
- True/false
- Matching
- Extended response (essay) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Extended response (essay)
Extended response items require students to organize, analyze, and articulate complex thinking, which aligns with higher-order cognitive demands.
Question 4: A student's portfolio contains writing samples, self-reflections, and project drafts collected over a semester. This is an example of:
- Norm-referenced assessment
- Authentic/portfolio assessment (Correct answer)
- Summative benchmark testing
- Diagnostic screening
Correct answer: Authentic/portfolio assessment
Portfolio assessment collects varied student work over time to show growth, effort, and achievement across multiple dimensions.
Question 5: Which term describes the degree to which test scores are free from random error and inconsistency?
- Fairness
- Validity
- Reliability (Correct answer)
- Objectivity
Correct answer: Reliability
Reliability measures how consistently a test produces the same results across different times, raters, or forms.
Question 6: On a multiple-choice test, every student selects the same wrong answer for one question. This most likely indicates a problem with:
- Student motivation
- Test timing
- Item construction or content coverage (Correct answer)
- Answer sheet formatting
Correct answer: Item construction or content coverage
When nearly all students miss the same item, it often signals a misleading question, a content gap in instruction, or a flawed distractor.
Question 7: Which statistic tells a teacher how spread out student scores are on a test?
- Mean
- Median
- Standard deviation (Correct answer)
- Mode
Correct answer: Standard deviation
Standard deviation quantifies how much individual scores vary around the mean, indicating the spread of the distribution.
Selective Test Assessment and Evaluation Methods 3
Which of the following is an example of criterion-referenced assessment?