Shiken: JALT Testing & Evaluation SIG Newsletter
Vol. 10 No. 2. Dec. 2006. (p. 25 - 32) [ISSN 1881-5537]
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Assessment Literacy Self-Study Quiz #1
by Tim Newfields

This newsletter is introducing a new column in which some basic questions about testing, statistics, and assessment are raised in a quiz format. For those who are new to statistics, it provides a chance to leisurely become acquainted with terms and concepts which frequently appear in educational journals. Readers with a solid a background in educational research might also enjoy quickly reviewing these assessment-related topics.

Part I: Open Questions

  1. What's the actual formula for the ubiquitous hensachi used in ranking schools in Japan?

  2. At the RateMyProfessors.com (www.ratemyprofessors.com) website claiming to have over six million ratings over 700,000 professors in North America, the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand two different professors teaching the same course received these ratings –

    2 Ratings

    What can we assume about these teachers based on this information? And what are some of the validity issues to consider when examining at any data from sources such as RateMyProfessors.com?

  3. A teacher wants to select a random sample of high school students out of a total population of 400 students (N=400). How big does her sample size need to be to have a 95% confidence interval for that population?

  4. A survey was conducted of student attitudes towards a placement test. 300 questionnaires were handed out, but the response rate was 60%. The 120 students who did not respond were ignored in this study and all research findings were based on the remaining 180 responses. When 144 students (44% of the original survey sample) indicated support for a given idea, the administrator of the survey claimed "80% of the students were in favor of X." Any problem?

  5. How widely accepted is Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908) today? What pedagogical applications, if any, does it have?

  6. What information should technically be contained in an informed consent form? For EFL research would simple verbal agreements suffice?
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Part II: Multiple Choice Questions

  1. To calculate the reliability coefficient for some data, which of the following variables are needed?


    HINT: Please select two variables.


  2. To calculate the Kuder-Richardson 21 internal consistency reliability for some data, three variables are needed:
    (1) the mean, (2) the standard deviation, and (3)

  3. To calculate a chi-square statistic with one degree of freedom for two groups, which of the following is NOT needed?



  4. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a curve with a perfectly normal distribution?



  5. To find out how the total score on a test correlates with the chance of getting a single item
    on that test correct, a should be ascertained.
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