Chapter 18 in Educational Assessment of Students focuses on finding published assessments to suit a variety of teachers’ needs. Maybe you have a student who seems to be struggling and you want to rule out dyslexia. Perhaps you’d like to peruse state assessment options for your class, or even your district. This chapter outlines several reputable resources and routes to travel for your search. Here’s the bottom line: teachers don’t need to work hard to find published assessments because there are plenty out there. Brookhart and Nitko have shared their reliable road map, so let’s go!
Before we get started, here’s a short list of terms you may want to keep in mind:
external assessment procedure
Mental Measurements Yearbooks (MMYs)
Pruebas Publicados en Español
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
Test Critiques
Locating Published Tests from Print Sources
Tests in Print (TIP)is a test resource brimming with 4,000 listings, and there are ten volumes so far. Its five indexes allow you to search via test name, category, author, type of scoring, or even acronym. Pruebas Publicados en Español is the new Spanish version of TIP, but please be aware that some of its tests are only in Spanish and some are published in English, but have a Spanish version as well.
Tests: A Comprehensive Reference for Assessments in Psychology, Education, and Business has 2,000+ listings in the areas of psychology, education, and business. Tests has not only 90 subcategories for these areas, but also indexes galore, including hearing and visually impaired, foreign languages, and out of print.
Textbooks about testing also commonly include tests! The first place you should look is in the index. But it’s important to remember that they only have a little bit of room, and the select few included are likely just convenient for some reason; they are not necessarily high-quality material.
Test publishers’ catalogs might be the smartest way to go about locating tests and relevant details. These catalogs also include other specifics you’ll need to know, like costs, scoring services, and even test manuals. You should check with your school’s testing office (or a nearby college’s testing office), which is generally a hub for items like this.
Locating Published Tests Online
The Buros Institute of Mental Measurements allows you to sift through over 4,000 tests, along with multiple reviews of each. Many of its tests are also available in Spanish. Buros is “the world’s premier test review center,” and is most revered for its psychological and educational testing. “The Oscar K. Buros Library of Mental Measurements houses the largest collection of commercially available tests in the world“(Buros, n.d.).
Mental Measurements Yearbook from EBSCO on Vimeo.
The ETS Test Collection is yet another resource to consult for all of your assessment needs. The ETS Test Collection houses over 20,000 tests and associated products. Not all of these tests are published; some are out of print, and others may be purchased and downloaded. Simply use the “Find a Test” tab on the site and search by title, author, or type of test.
If none of the above suggestions work out, you can always try a general internet search using the test title, author’s name, or topic. Brookhart and Nitko suggest using eric.ed.gov before resorting to Google, and using PsychINFO from your library if possible (p.414).
Locating Published Tests Through Personal Contacts
There are certain large organizations and agencies that may be able to assist you or answer your questions via their 1 (800) numbers; several of these are listed in this part of the chapter and below. Occasionally someone affiliated with one of these companies might be able to guide you by connecting you with someone knowledgeable near you:
- American Educational Research Association
- Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling
- International Reading Association (IRA)
- National Association of Test Directors (NATD)
- National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)
- National Center on Educational Outcomes
- West Ed
- Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (MCREL)
- American College Testing Program
- Educational Testing Service
- National Center for Fair and Open Testing (Brookhart and Nitko, p.414)
Locating Evaluations of Published Tests
If you read my previous post about professional responsibilities, then you already know teachers cannot use someone else’s test without first reviewing it for accuracy and making any necessary edits or corrections. The first portion of this chapter focuses on finding assessments, but this next part centers on finding professional reviews of the assessments you’ve located– because doing your “homework” is one of your primary duties as a teacher.
The Mental Measurements Yearbooks (MMYs) are a series of test bibliographies associated with the Buros Institute, mentioned previously in this post. These consist of hundreds of test reviews, and every single test entry has five distinct parts:
- The description section – title, grade level, author’s/publisher’s information
- The development section – how refined the test is
- The technical section – the test’s reliability and validity (see my previous post)
- The commentary section – comprehensive opinion of the test
- The summary section – reviewer’s sentiments (Brookhart & Nitko, p. 416)
Professional Journals
The following is a list of journals that share test reviews in reading, math, child development, or learning disabilities:
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
Journal of Learning Disabilities
Journal of Personality Assessment
Journal of School Psychology
Journal of Special Education
Psychological Reports
Psychology in the Schools
Reading Teacher (Brookhart and Nitko, p.416)
DO NOT FORGET that there are also still plenty of unpublished tests from a variety of sources. You can check the ETS Test Collection, The Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures, and Ovid Technologies to search for those. Keep in mind that you might finally find a test you’ve spent months searching for, only to learn that its purchase may be restricted. You may have to jump through some serious hoops to get your hot little hands on something in particular, depending on the publisher’s guidelines. Consequently, Brookhart and Nitko recommend wasting no time when you know there’s a very specific test you need.
Ultimately, teachers don’t need to work hard to find published assessments; they are available in many different places. In fact, it may be more difficult for teachers to find unpublished assessments. Start with the resources mentioned here in this post and you will soon have everything you need at your fingertips.
Psssssst….if you’d like to read another chapter summary, CLICK HERE!