|
| |
Interpreting Test
Results
The Test Results Report begins with several pages of summary information
intended to be used primarily by the class instructor. These pages are
followed by a set of individual student letters. Each student should be
given his or her own letter and encouraged to discuss the results with the
instructor and parents. Students should keep the letter for possible
later use in tutorials or specially designed summer courses that may allow
them to concentrate on those topics needing review.
Each summary information page contains the name of the school, the
instructor, the course, test date, and test type. This information is
provided by the instructor when the answer sheets are sent to the scoring
center. The instructor should have a copy of the test available when
reviewing the Test Result Report.
 |
Class
Results - The class averages on each topic and on the entire test
are reported on the Class Results page. These averages are expressed
both as raw scores and as percentages. The mastery level is reported
for each topic, and for the number and the percentage of students
scoring at or above the mastery level for each topic.
The
information reported on the Class Results page provides some
indication of the class's overall level of preparedness for the next
mathematics course and in each of the topics of the test. The topic
results may be helpful in identifying topics where further review is
needed or where ways to strengthen the curriculum might be sought.
They also provide an indication of which topics to examine first on
the following page in the report. The total score may be useful to
indicate the level at which the next course should begin.
|
|
Graphic
Display of Class Results - The Graphic Display of Class
Results page contains bar graphs indicating the percentage of students
in the class answering each item correctly. These graphs are grouped
by the topics of the test. Within each topic, the graphs are ordered
by the percentage of students correctly answering each item. The
graphs show the relative difficulty for the class of each item. The
bar graphs provide a quick way of identifying those items that were
most difficult for a class. These more difficult items might be
examined first on the following page in the report. Similarly, the bar
graphs provide a quick way of identifying the items and topics where
the students did best, and thus, where the curriculum and instruction
is working most successfully.
|
|
Item
Analysis - The Item Analysis page reports the performance of the
class on each item in the test. The results are presented in terms of
both the number of students and the percentages of students choosing
each response. We recommend that each reader of these reports
concentrate on whichever form (number or percentage) seems more
appropriate. We will discuss only the percentage report since the
discussion for number would be virtually the same. |
The following information is listed for each item: the item number; the
key (i.e., the correct response for the item); the topic of the item (or a
code for the topic, the codes are listed on the cover letter of the
report); the percentage of students who did not select any of the possible
answers for the item (or "omits"); and, for each possible
response (A) through (E), the percentage of students who selected that response. An asterisk appears with the percentage of students who selected
the correct answer. The Item Analysis page can provide very detailed
information about the students' ways of working problems. We suggest that
the previous pages be
used to identify items of special interest to be
examined first. Often, analysis of common wrong responses will indicate
types of errors students have made.
An
example of the kind of analysis that can be made is as follows:
Suppose
that the following appeared for item #43:
|
|
|
(A)
-ab
|
(B)
ab
|
(C)
(a - b)2
|
(D)
a2 + b2
|
(E) 
|
|
Suppose that the item analysis for item
43 appeared as follows:
|
|
OMIT
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
|
4
|
*17
|
4
|
56
|
4
|
13
|
|
|
The
popularity of response (C) suggests that most of the students converted
the denominator to  before inverting and
multiplying. It appears that they
are
still adding
fractions by adding denominators instead of first finding a common
denominator. Another explanation may be that each term in the denominator
was
first inverted, giving a - b and
then the result inverted and multiplied to yield (C). In
any case, an
analysis of the students' responses to this item would show that a
large
percentage of students are having difficulty with literal fractions.
|
Individual
Student Results - The Individual Student Results page gives summary
information about each student's performance on the test. This information
includes the total number of items that the student answered correctly,
and the number of items to which the student responded. An asterisk
appears with each score that is below mastery level. The number of items
attempted and the last item attempted may provide some indication of the
extent to which a student has difficulty in finishing the test rather than
in solving certain problems on it. |
|
Individual
Student Letters - Following the summary information reporting the
class results as a whole, are individual, one-page letters addressed to
each student in the class. These letters give the student his or her total
score on the test along with scores in each topics. Further, the topics
are separated into those in which the student scored at or above mastery
level, those in which the student needs some review, and those in which
the student needs substantial review.
|
[ MDTP Test Levels ] [ Available Test ] [ Written Response ] [ Ordering and Scoring ] [ Results ] [ Interpreting Test Results ] [ Samples ]
|
