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Precision of age norms in tests used to assess preschool children
Author(s) -
Spector Janet E.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6807(199911)36:6<459::aid-pits2>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - raw score , normative , psychology , developmental psychology , norm (philosophy) , test (biology) , standard score , norm referenced test , standardized test , age groups , cognition , preschool education , psychometrics , test validity , statistics , mathematics education , demography , paleontology , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , sociology , biology , political science , law , neuroscience
This study investigated normative precision in 14 preschool tests representing four domains: cognitive, language, adaptive behavior, and early academic skills. The purpose was to explore the consequences of using tests with more‐ vs. less‐precise age norms to identify disabilities in preschool children. As expected, on tests with more precise norms, standard scores associated with the same raw score shifted gradually across age groups. On the other hand, tests with less precise norms showed more dramatic standard score shifts across age groups. Examination of the degree of shift found in each test indicated that many preschool tests have norm tables that are potentially problematic for diagnosing disabilities, particularly for children near norm group cut‐off ages. On high stakes tests, an optimal span is one to three months. This standard can be achieved by using interpolation and/or increasing the size of norming samples at the preschool level. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.