Types of Educational Testing

This is the first of two blogs focused on testing by Melissa Shipman, Executive Director of PACE and a teacher of children with special needs for over 10 years. Melissa lives in Georgia, USA with her husband and two daughters.

Are you finding that the demand for testing seems to be increasing among the families we serve? In order to serve most effectively, an educational consultant needs to understand the differences between types of educational tests and exactly how they may and may not help families. This week and next week, I’ll do my best to clearly and concisely outline this for you.

Types of Testing

When considering educational testing as a whole, we need to understand that all testing compares the performance of a child to something.

• Criterion-referenced testing compares the performance of a child on a test to a set of criteria/standards/objectives, often set by the local school system, state, or national education system. To put it simply, if Johnny answers correctly eight out of every ten questions, he scores an 80% and is assumed to have mastered 80% of the objectives.

• Norm-referenced testing compares the performance of a child on a test to the performance of other children on the same test. On large nationwide tests, the performance of a child is compared to the performance of all the other children who took the test on the same day. Other norm-referenced tests are “normed” at regular intervals (usually about every five years), and the performance of a child is compared to that of all of the children who were in the norm group/norming sample.

If Johnny gets the same number of questions correct as 60% of the norming sample, he scores in the 60th percentile. This doesn’t mean that he only answered 60% of the questions correctly; rather, it means that he answered the same as or better than 60% of his peers.

Criterion-referenced tests are usually administered regularly in the classroom or in conjunction with homeschooling. Examples of this would be end-of-chapter tests or quizzes. They might be formative (used to adjust and adapt instruction along the way) or summative (used to report the performance of a child after instruction has concluded). Typically, an education consultant isn’t heavily involved in this type of testing. And, in general, these types of tests are not what parents are increasingly requesting.

It makes sense that the parents we serve request norm-referenced testing. If a parent is providing their child’s education in isolated or atypical circumstances, of course they would want the assurance that their child is “on track” and keeping up with their peers in their home country.

For most children, some type of standardized norm-referenced achievement test fills the demand for this type of testing. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills is a good example of this type of test. Many of these tests can be administered in group settings, and can easily be scored by education consultants. The performance of one child is compared to that of the norming group that was established by the test publisher, compared (in the case of the ITBS) to that of other children in the same US grade at the same time of year (fall, mid-year, or spring).

Diagnostic Testing

Children who are experiencing significant struggles in their learning need more than just a standardized achievement test. If the family and consultant feel that it is necessary, the child might need a full psycho-educational evaluation, which is used to diagnose learning difficulties. I wish that I could very simply outline what is needed for this full evaluation; however, with variables in the child’s behavior, the culture in which the testing occurs, and philosophy of those involved in the testing, this type of testing looks different every time.

In general, a psycho-educational evaluation will include some measure of cognitive abilities (intelligence), skill level on educational tasks, and behavior. Usually parents will be asked for a full history of the child’s learning and development. So the following measures are often involved:

• IQ testing (individual)

• Achievement testing (individual)

• Behavior rating scales (usually completed by parents and/or teachers)

• Extended history or testing questionnaire (completed by parents)

Who Can Test?

There is no blanket answer to this question because this varies by test. Most achievement tests can be administered by an educator who has been trained on a particular test.

In order to provide an accurate diagnosis of any learning struggles, the professional who provides most of the testing and puts together a diagnosis and report needs to be highly trained and qualified. In the US, this is usually an educational psychologist who has some type of doctoral or advanced degree. In some states in the US, one can be trained as a school psychologist in a master’s degree program.

Connecting families to a qualified professional who can provide diagnostic testing can present a significant challenge for education consultants. A few larger sending agencies have qualified psychologists on staff. Some organizations such as SHARE recruit educational psychologists to come to their conferences to provide this type of testing whenever possible. Consultants have also had some success in connecting families with an educational psychologist on staff at an international school.

Next week, I’ll discuss testing as it relates specifically to TCKs.

What are the most significant challenges related to testing that you face as an education consultant?

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