Measurement and intelligence testing has evolved over time to aid important decision making in education and psychology. Early standardized tests in the late 19th century aimed to inform curriculum and classify students. During World Wars, tests assessed military recruits. Criticism emerged around tests' use for discrimination against minorities. The 1960s brought accountability with Title I and special education. No Child Left Behind mandated state testing. Current issues include assessing minorities fairly and balancing privacy, criterion vs. norm interpretations, and other test factors for ethical decision making.

1. Fundamental Issues in Measurement
Advanced Measurement and Evaluation
January 20th, 2016
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Intelligence?
How does the environment shape intelligence?
How would you measure intelligence?
What type of decisions are made based on intelligence test
results?
Decisions?
Measurement procedures aid in our decision-making process in
education and psychology
Gathering information to make an informed decision.
Type of Measurement affects the decisions that we make.
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History of Measurement
Formal measurement procedures appeared in Western culture in

2. the middle of the 19th century.
Joseph Rice, 1867; used uniform examinations to examine
spelling achievement in Boston
Inform curriculum
Science of Psychology
Develop new ways of measuring human behavior
Ebbinghaus 1896 introduced fill in the blank
Development of the correlation, Sir Francis Galton and Karl
Pearson
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Contexts of Decision-Making 19th Century
Mandatory School Attendance Laws
Objectivity and accountability in assessing student performance
Increase in the number of students from middle and lower
socioeconomic background
Considered to be feeble-minded and unable to learn
Development of measurements methods and instruments to
differentiate students with disabilities from students with lower
socioeconomic status backgrounds.
Medical community~ abnormal behaviors
Behavioral and psychological measurements to classify and
diagnose patients.
Business and Government agencies
Used for employment decisions.
Mental Measurement
Binet-Simon Scales

3. Measures complex mental processes
Identify students’ mental abilities
Thorndike
Measured school abilities
Nature of the measurement process
Creation of the scales to assess reading and mathematics.
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Early Period
Before World War I
Lewis Terman of Stanford University published Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scale (1916)
Introduction of the theory of..
reliability, inconsistencies in the measurement of human
abilities.
G factor: single dimension of ability underlying human
performance
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Boom Period (WW1)
Science of Psychology needed for Military expansion
15-year boom many innovations in the testing movement
Army Alpha (Verbal Test) and Army Beta (mazes and puzzles)
Army Alpha first to use multiple-choice tests
Woodworth Personal Data Sheet
First objective measure of personality
Measurement of vocational interests by E.K. Strong.
Measurement of attitudes and values by L.L. Thurstone.

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First Period of Criticism (1930s)
Increase confidence and expectations in mental measurement
Kuder Scales
Measuring vocational interests
Wechsler Scales
Factor Analysis (Thurstone’s)
Mental Measurements Yearbook (Oscar Buros)
Critical Reviews of mental tests
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The Battery Period (1940s)
Identification of different types of dimensions and abilities.
Use of testing in military programs.
Widespread use of nationally developed, commercially
prepared tests.
Increased use of tests by business, industry, and the civil
service system.
Increased use of psychological tests in mental institutions.
First APA guidelines on test development.
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Second Period of Criticism (1960s)
Increased concern about the use of ability and personality tests
in public education and industry.

5. Concern about discrimination against women and minorities.
Age of Accountability
Federal Support of Compensatory Education: Title I
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965
Largest federal program of assistance to elementary and
secondary education.
Programs or services to help children at risk for academic
failure
A Nation at Risk (1983 ) (National Commission on Excellence
in Education)
School-level accountability
Externally mandated tests were utilized as a major instrument
for education reform.
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Age of Accountability Cont’d
NCLB act of 2001
Reauthorization of the ESEA of 1965
Extensive testing requirements apply to all public schools.
Variability among the states in terms of content standards.
States were required to submit plans justifying that their content
and performance standards are challenging
Types of Decisions
Instructional
Decisions made by teachers and school psychologists.
Curricular
Change in curriculum
Selection

6. College acceptance or job
Placement or classification
Gifted or tracking programs
Personal
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlmKZeNi-U
In-Class Activity
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Measurement and decisions.
Values in Decision-making
People make decisions
Facts and values
Test scores only give facts
Values may conflict with facts
Measurement also guides theoretical decisions.
*How much we value the decision making process.
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Steps in the Measurement Process

7. Identifying and defining the attribute.
Measuring a quality or attribute of the thing or person.
Ex. Motivation of a preschooler, length of a table, etc.
Deciding which attributes are relevant.
Choosing the right attributes to describe
Measure traits that are relevant to the decisions being made.
Steps in the Measurement Process
Determining operations to isolate and display the attribute.
Constructs may be combinations of attributes.
Smaller constructs creating a larger construct. i.e. (intelligence
as a global construct).
Operational definitions
How are we measuring the attribute?
Ex. Achievement: Measured by scores on DCAS, Self-esteem,
measured by scores on the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.
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Steps in the Measurement Process
Quantifying the attribute.
Advantages of quantification
How much of the attribute is present in the person or thing.
Communication and precision
Scales are rules for assigning numbers
Defining the unit (inches, pounds)
Determining equal units
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8. Current Issues in Measurement
Testing Minority Individuals
Publishers work to ensure that items do not present an unfair
challenge to women or members of ethnic or linguistic minority
groups.
Should all children have the same educational objectives
Measured through achievement tests
Motivation to do well on tests
Measurement of aptitude; what students can do.
Monitor student progress and flexibility
Current Issues in Measurement Cont’d
Invasion of Privacy
Amount of private information
Record keeping
How should information be used?
normative comparisons
Criterion vs. norm-referenced interpretations for decision
making.
Other factors that influence scores
Extraneous Factors (nutrition, anxiety, motivation)
Effects of coaching on test performance and relationships
between examiner and examinee.
Rights and responsibilities of test takers.
Standards for educational and psychological testing
APA website; set of guidelines
AERA and high stakes testing
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9. Homework #2
Advanced Measurement and Evaluation
(25pts)
Based on your text and the lecture slides, please provide
comprehensive responses to the following questions.
1. Discuss the major contribution of each time period to the
field of educational and psychological measurement.
2. What aspect of assessment tends to cause the most problems
in the assessment of minority students?
3. Questions # 1, 2, &7 in your text.
1. List some instances, preferably recent, of decisions you made
about yourself or others made about you in which results from
some kind of educational or psychological measurement played
a part. Classify each decision as (1) instructional, (2) selection,
(3) placement or classification, or (4) personal.
2. From your personal experience of a decision made, describe
one or more instances for which an educational or psychological
measurement could have been helpful but was unavailable. On
what basis was the decision actually made?
3. For one of the attributes listed here, describe how you might
(1) define the attribute, (2) set up procedures to make that
attribute observable, and (3) quantify the attribute.
a. Critical thinking
b. Friendliness
c. “Good citizenship” in an elementary school pupil
d. Competence as an automobile driver