Description
Interpreting Standardized Test Scores: Strategies for Data-Driven Instructional Decision Making is designed to help K-12 teachers and administrators understand the nature of standardized tests and, in particular, the scores that result from them. This useful manual helps teachers develop the skills necessary to incorporate these test scores into various types of instructional decision making—a process known as "data-driven decision making"—necessitated by the needs of their students.
Table of Contents
Preface
SECTION ONE: OVERVIEW OF STANDARDIZED TESTING: CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY
1. What Is "Standardized" Testing?
What Makes a Test "Standardized"?
A Brief History of Standardized Testing in American Education
How Standardized Tests Are Developed
Test Bias
Types of Standardized Tests Based on Purpose
Types of Standardized Tests Based on Scores
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
2. The Importance of Standardized Testing
Appropriate Uses of Standardized Testing in Education
Misuses of Standardized Testing in Education
Why Educators Dislike Standardized Testing
Why Educators (Should) Like Standardized Testing
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
3. Standardized Test Administration and Preparation
Standardized Administration Procedures
Testwiseness Skills
Do's and Dont's of Test Preparation
"Teaching to the Test" Versus "Teaching to the Standards"- A Final Word
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
SECTION TWO: STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES AND THEIR INTERPRETATIONS
4. Test Reports
Overview of Test Reports
Individual Student Reports
Class Reports
Building- and District-Level Reports
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
5. Criterion-Referenced Test Scores and Their Interpretations
What Do Criterion-Referenced Test Scores Tell Us?
Selected-Response Test Items
Constructed-Response Test Items
The Nature of Cut Scores
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
6. Norm-Referenced Test Scores and Their Interpretations
What Do Norm-Referenced Scores Tell Us?
The Nature of Norm Groups
Types of Norm-Referenced Scores
Standard Error of Measurement and Confidence Intervals
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
SECTION THREE: USING STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES IN INSTRUCTIONAL DECISION MAKING
7. Group-Level Decision Making
Data-Driven Decision Making
A Process for Focusing on Group Instruction
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
8. Student-Level Decision Making
A Process for Focusing on Individual Instruction (Intervention)
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
9. Value-Added Analysis and Interpretation
What Is "Value-Added" Analysis?
A Process for Value-Added Decision Making
Summary
Activities for Application and Reflection
SECTION FOUR: CASE STUDIES: INTERVIEWS WITH TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS
District and School Profiles
Interview Transcripts: Teachers
Interview Transcripts: Administrators
Glossary
References
Index
About the Author
