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Testing and Measurement
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Testing and Measurement
A User-Friendly Guide

October 2005 | 200 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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This step-by-step approach, allows students to master testing and measurement concepts through practical exercises and feedback. Using humour, cartoons and real-world examples the authors guide the reader through the essential components of measurement, starting with measurement scales and ending with reliability and validity. They show that everyone can learn testing and measurement concepts, and they make the learning process fun and non-threatening. For those who want to challenge themselves beyond the self-instructional exercises included throughout each chapter, data sets are provided as an aid to further learning. The book is invaluable for all introductory courses in measurement and testing at undergraduate and lower-level graduate level in the social and behavioral sciences.
 
List of Figures
 
List of Tables
 
A Note to Students
 
Acknowledgments
 
1. What Is a Number? Is a Rose Always a Rose?
Numbers and Scales

 
Some Final Thoughts About Scales of Measurement

 
Numbers and Response Formats

 
Some Final Thoughts About Response Formats

 
Numbers and Test Scores--How Do They Relate?

 
Some Final Thoughts About Measurement Scales and Response Formats

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
2. Frequencies: One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four
Ungrouped Frequency Distributions

 
Grouped Frequency Distributions

 
Cumulative Frequency Distribution

 
Some Final Thoughts About Frequency Distributions

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
3. The Distribution of Test Scores--The Perfect Body?
Kurtosis

 
Skewness

 
Some Final Thoughts About Distribution of Test Scores

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
4. Central Tendencies and Dispersion--Coming Together or Growing Apart
Central Tendencies--The Inner Core of the Normal Curve

 
The Mode

 
The Median

 
Medians and Modes for Grouped Frequency Data

 
The Mean

 
Some Final Points About Central Tendency

 
Dispersion--Not All Bodies Are the Same

 
Range

 
Deviation Scores

 
Variance

 
Standard Deviation

 
Means and Standard Deviations in the Real World

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Your New Best Friend--SPSS

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
5. Standardized Scores--Do You Measure Up?
Percentiles--What They Mean in Measurement

 
Percentile Ranks for Grouped Data

 
Some Final Thoughts About Percentile Ranks

 
Z Scores

 
Why Transform a Raw Score to a Z Score?

 
Other Standard Scores

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Your New Best Friend–SPSS

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
6. Norms and Criterion Scores--Keeping Up With the Joneses or Not
Criterion-Referenced Tests--Do You Know as Much as You Should?

 
Norm-Referenced Tests--Dying to Fit In

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
7. Error Scores--The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth?
Test Theory

 
Test-Theory Assumptions

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
8. Building a Strong Test--One the Big Bad Wolf Can’t Blow Down
Item Difficulty

 
Some Final Thoughts About Item Difficulty

 
Item Discrimination

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
9. Reliability--The Same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
The Mathematical Foundation of Reliability

 
Types of Reliability Estimates

 
Standard Error of Measurement

 
Correlation Coefficients as Measures of Reliability

 
Some Final Thoughts About Reliability

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
10. Validity--What You See Is Not Always What You Get
Helping You Get What You See

 
Sources of Validity Evidence

 
The Marriage of Reliability and Validity--Wedded Bliss

 
Interpreting the Validity of Tests--Intended and Unintended Consequences

 
Some Final Thoughts About Validity

 
Key Terms

 
Models and Self-instructional Exercises

 
Words of Encouragement

 
 
11. The Perils and Pitfalls of Testing--Being Ethical
Your Own Competence

 
Rights of Those Being Tested

 
Potential Dangers

 
Ryan's Rights

 
 
Appendix
 
References
 
Index
 
About the Authors

It is a good textbook for beginning students.

Dr Paul Madak
Psychology, Univ of Northern British Columbia
June 18, 2012
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