Standardized tests are designed to have consistent objectives and criteria across different forms of the test. They measure students' mastery of prescribed grade-level competencies. Developing a standardized test involves determining its purpose, designing test specifications, creating and selecting test items, evaluating items, specifying scoring procedures, and ongoing validation studies. The document outlines these steps and provides examples of standardized language proficiency tests like TOEFL and IELTS.

1. STANDARDIZED
TESTING

2. Standardized Test
It presupposes certain standard objectives, or
criteria, that are held constant across one form of
the test to another.
It measurers the children’s mastery of the
standards or competencies that have ben
prescribed for specific grade levels.

3. Advantages of Standardized Test
It is a ready-made previously validated product
that frees the teacher from having to spend hours
creating a test.
Administration to large groups can be
accomplished within reasonable time limits.
In the case of multiple-choice formats, scoring
procedures are streamlined for either scannable
computerized scoring or hand-scoring with a hole-
punched grid for fast turnaround time.

4. Disadvantages of Standardized
Test
Inappropriate use of such tests.
Example: using an overall proficiency test as an
achievement test simply because of the
convenience of the standardization.

5. Developing a Standardized Test
Legend:
TOEFL – The Test Of English as a Foreign
Language
ESLPT – The English as a Second Language
Placement Test
GET – The Graduate Essay Test

6. 1. Determine the purpose and
objectives of the Test
 It is important for the test’s purpose and objectives to
be stated specifically.
 Example:
 TOEFL – its purpose is to evaluate English proficiency
of people whose native language is not English.
 ESLPT – designed to place already admitted students
in an appropriate course in academic writing, with the
secondary goal of placing students into courses in oral
production and grammar-editing.

7. The content of test must be designed to
accomplish those particular ends.
Each test has a specific gate-keeping function to
perform; therefore the criteria before entering
those gates must be specified accurately.

8. 2. Design Test Specifications
 This is the step of laying the foundation stones of the
test.
 Example:
 TOEFL – Specifications: 1. Listening Section
2. Structure Section
3. Reading Section
4. Writing Section
 Each specs are not just stated that way, it should
include what does it measures, what does it covers,
and what material it uses.

9. 3. Design, select and arrange test
tasks/items
Once specifications for a standardized test have
been stipulated, the task of designing, selecting
and arranging test tasks/items begins.
The specs act much like a blueprint in determining
the number and types of items to be created.

10. 4. Make appropriate evaluations of
different kinds of items.
Item facility (IF) – % of people who give the right
answer
Item Discrimination (IDis) – indicates the extent to
which success on an item corresponds to success
on the whole test.
Item Difficulty (ID) - finding out the % of people
who get the item right in the try-out group.

11. 4. Make appropriate evaluations of
different kinds of items.
Performing them may not be practical especially if
the classroom-based test is a one-time test. But for
a standardized multiple-choice test that is
designed to be marketed commercially, or
administered a number of times, and administered
in different form, these indices are a must.

12. 4. Make appropriate evaluations of
different kinds of items.
There are different form of evaluation for
other types of response formats. (ex.
Production responses)
Practicality -
Clarity of directions
Timing of the test
Ease of administration
Time required to score responses.

13. 4. Make appropriate evaluations of
different kinds of items.
Reliability – is the degree to which an assessment
tool produces stable and consistent results.
Facility –
Unclear directions
Complex language
Obscure topics
Fuzzy data
Culturally biased information.

14. 5. Specify scoring procedures or
formats
A systematic assembly of test items in pre-selected
arrangements and sequences, all of which are
validated to conform to an expected level of
difficulty, should yield a test that can then be
scored accurately and reported back to test-
takers and institutions efficiently.

15. 6. Perform on going construct
validation studies
No standardized instrument is expected to be used
repeatedly without a rigorous program of on going
construct validation.
Any standardized test, once developed, must be
accompanied by systematic corroboration of its
effectiveness and by steps towards its
improvement.

16. Standardized Language
Proficiency Tests
Standardized oral production tests
1. TSE – Test of Spoken English
2. OPI – Orals Proficiency Inventory
3. TWE – Test of Written English

17. Standardized Language
Proficiency Tests
 Commercially produced standardized tests of English
language proficiency:
1. TOEFL – The Test Of English as a Foreign
Language
2. MELAB – Michigan English Language Assessment
Battery
3. IELTS – International English Language Testing
System
4. TOEIC – Test of English for Internatioonal
Communication

18. End