Testing And Measurement: User-Friendly Guide, A

Description:
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.

Table of Contents:
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