Week 3, Chapter 4

            As I read chapter 4, “light bulbs” started to turn on for me.  There were several terms in this chapter that I have seen but never truly understood.  I appreciate the way the authors of this book explain concepts and given examples in simple terms.   The figures on pages 70 and 71 are incredibly helpful for me, as I am a very visual person.  Just seeing how various types of scores compare to the normal curve really helped to solidify these concepts for me.  Also, while I understood what norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests were, until I read the section about when to use each test, I did not fully understand the difference between them. The example about a depression inventory made perfect sense; if using a criterion-referenced test for such an assessment, one would only understand whether or not the person has “mastered the knowledge and skills to be depressed” (Drummond & Jones, 2010).  This, of course, would not make sense, so a norm-referenced test would be used.

When reading about norm groups, I wondered how frequently norm-referenced tests are updated based on the norm group.  Page 67 of Drummond & Jones (2010) states, “It is reasonable to expect that instruments will be revised at least every 10 years.”  With the rapidly changing diversity of the population locally, state- and nation-wide, I wonder how relevant the norm group is for a given test in the months or years before it is updated, as it relates to ethnicity, race, and SES.

            I still have some unanswered questions.  First, I have heard of stanine scores (mostly from reading evaluation reports) but I am not familiar with sten scores.  I wondered what exactly sten scores are used for.  Concerning stanine scores, while I understand that they are a simplified way of describing scores, they still do not make sense to me when just looking at the score.  It seems that including a percentile rank or a qualitative description is essential to help solidify understanding of a variety of the types of scores, sten and stanine included.   Perhaps the part of this chapter that I feel completely in the dark about is the GSV, or Growth Scale Value, which is included in figures on pages 77 and 78.  I did not see a description of this, and am completely confused about what it means and what it is used for, especially after viewing the figure on page 78.

            While I feel more comfortable with the concepts of understanding assessment scores, I still cannot help but wonder how all of the data used to determine norm groups, percentile ranks, etc. are organized.  It is just so much data to keep straight!   I would be interested in learning the process of such large-scale data collection.

Drummond, R. J. and Jones, K. (2010). Assessment procedures for counselors and

            helping professionals. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.