Assessment

Terminology Used in Assessments

Assessment is a complex process that involves many ways of collecting information about a
student. Testing, one part of the assessment process, is the administration of specifically designed
measures to assess a child's academic or perceptual strengths or weaknesses as well as his or her
emotional dynamics.
1. Formal Tests are also called Standardized Tests as they have standardized procedures
for administration and scoring. The standardized test is a form of measurement that has
been normed against a specific population. Standardization is obtained by administering
the test to a given population and then calculating means, standard deviations,
standardized scores and percentiles. Equivalent scores are then produced for comparisons
of an individual score to the norm group's performance. Examples of these tests include
WISC which can only be administered and interpreted by a psychologist whereas
academic assessment standardized tests such as Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT),
Test of Written Language (TOWL), Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (K-TEA),
and Weschler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) can be administered by special
education teachers. For a helpful website with samples of a variety of formal tests and
other diagnostic information go to http://school-psychology.org/. These tests are normreferenced and are designed to compare the level of student functioning to a larger group
of students of the same age or grade level.
Other types of formal assessments include Speech and Language Assessment done by a
Speech and Language Pathologist, an Occupational Therapy Assessment done by an
Occupational Therapist usually in a hospital setting, Audiological and Vision
Assessments done by qualified practitioners and a Psychiatric Assessment done by a
psychiatrist, to name a few.
2. Informal tests have not been standardized and rely on the teacher. The informal test is
a non-standardized test that is designed to give an approximate index of an individual's
level of ability or learning style; often teacher-constructed.
3. Criterion-Referenced Test is a measurement of achievement of specific criteria or skills
in terms of absolute levels of mastery. The focus is on performance of an individual as
measured against a standard or criteria rather than against performance of others who
take the same test, as with norm-referenced tests.