Achievement Assessment: Measures Of General Achievement

Measures of General Achievement

Achievement tests are the most widely used type of standardized test, which are primarily designed to measure how much students have learned in specific content areas, most commonly Reading, Language, Arts, and Mathematics, but also in areas such as Science, Social Studies, computer literacy, and critical thinking (Hogan, 2007; Mertler, 2007). On the other hand, standardized achievement tests typically include batteries of subtests administered in a day or may require several days. They reflect a curriculum standard to most schools, which infers they will assess some, but not all, of the goals of an individual academic institution. This can be regarded as both strength and weakness. Because they are designed

Group achievement tests are mostly administered in the classroom setting, whereas individual achievement tests are utilized one-on-one in clinical or school settings. Group achievement tests might also be considered as educational achievement tests, since these instruments are apparently employed in academic settings. On the other hand, individual achievement tests may be an important measurement tool in the diagnosis of learning disability. Not only do these tests render documentation of impaired scholastic performance in crucial areas as reading, writing, and numerical ability, some achievement tests can aid in identifying certain skill deficits relative to learning disabilities. In an ideal manner, individual achievement tests should be used in conjunction with other measurement tools, especially intelligence

Specifically, the items on intelligence and special abilities tests require test takers to manifest some accomplishment, just like those on achievement tests. Educational achievement tests often serve as reliable predictors of school marks compared to tests of intelligence and special abilities, but still cannot completely replace them. It is notable to mention that the individual’s attainment measured by general intelligence tests are indeed broader and the products of less formal and usually less recent learning experiences compared to the ones measured by standardized achievement tests (Aiken, 2003c). Cohen et al. (2013b) regarded that the primary purpose for this kind of measure is that it focuses on the test taker’s level of comprehension in the different subject matters. These types of tests are commonly structured to include several subject areas divided into subtests and are most typically identified as test batteries. Interestingly, achievement tests often serve as better predictors of school ratings than tests of intelligence or special abilities. This does not connote, however, that test of achievement in a specific subject can entirely replace tests of intelligence and special abilities. Moreover, for the reason that achievement tests usually evaluate knowledge of information that has been methodically taught, scores