What is construct validity and differential item functioning in English please? Also, what are these “subgroups” that are mentioned frequently in the first few pages of the module, and what is there function with the ideas talked about in this section of the module?
High stake standardized testing more than anything else, lowers the self-efficacy in students that don’t score well on them, causing more dropouts later on than if there were not any high stake standardized testing. Also, it causes teachers to end up “teaching the test”, where they center the entire semester around the particular concepts that will be on the standardized test, and leaves little to no room for exploring new ideas, expanding creativity or group projects. Finally, the Academic Yearly Progress program is way too strict, implying that if the school is not continuously significantly growing in areas EVERY SINGLE year, they can face serious financial consequences. This will cause an OPPOSITE effect than desired: if you give less funding to a school with poor performance, then how in the WORLD is that supposed to help the school grow??
High stake tests are measuring whether the students have learned the concepts of the subject. The content on the test itself isn’t incorrect in any way or is trying to assess something irrelevant to the subject at hand; it’s just the circumstance of the testing and the high stakes that cause the trouble (as mentioned in the previous paragraph). So if intelligence equals learned relevant material, then yes, the test is measuring intelligence. But they are also measuring the quality of the teachers and school curriculum in order for the state to know whether they should cut funding or not. They measure accountability.
If the student fails the test, it could either mean they have not learned the material because they didn’t pay attention throughout the semester, the teacher didn’t teach all of the relevant material, or that the test is culturally biased. So, I don’t think that making me decide between whether to blame it on either the student or the test is fair, because that is ignoring the fact that maybe the teacher isn’t teaching well, and it’s the teacher’s fault.
construct validity is the accuracy with which something non-concrete (like achievement) is measured...example: The construct validity of the SAT is 85% (i have no idea if the c.v. is measured in percentages, nor what the c.v. of the sat actually is...just a fake example!)
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Differential item functioning is the difference in results between different groups (example: teh Alaskans did much better on the math section than the Hawaiians)
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