Create your own Assessment

It is important to be able to develop assessments to measure the things we find important. Though most areas of need are covered in traditional assessments you must be qualified to administer them. Those who are qualified tend to charge a large amount of money because of the intensity of work that the responses require as well as the astronomical cost to the Psychometrist each time a test is given.

You will on occasion have to give your own tests to students that will not necessarily be valid or reliable but may provide you a vital clue into what you need to know about each individual. An example given by one teacher each year is to ask every student to get up and tell the class about what he or she did for Christmas. Through this type of assessment the teacher can learn a great deal about the students life without arousing any social desirability biasing. Think about what someone would learn about your family if they asked you about your Christmas: Marital Status

Income levels

Religious Beliefs

Parental proclivities toward child rearing

Possible familial issues

Many additional factors may come up

This innocuous question that gives the student a chance to talk about themselves (something almost everyone loves) provides you with a goldmine of personal information.

Time to come up with your very version of an assessment.

Choose what you want to assess for:

Intelligence
Achievement
Emotional Status
Social or Behavioral Issues

Decide in your category what exactly you want to measure (the most focused the area the more accurate the test is likely to be).
Figure out your operational definitions for that item you wish to measure
Develop a test you can administer and easily understand based on measuring those characteristics.
Give this test to someone who you know matches your operational definitions for the area and see if the test results are positive compared to what you wanted them to be.
Send a copy of your test, the administration, and the results as well as an editorial on how well the test did or didn't work by email

E-mail J'Anne Affeld at Janne.Affeld@nau.edu

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Module 3 Coverpage

Course developed by J'Anne & Martha Affeld