Assessment Glossary
The Planning, Research, & Evaluation Department has put together the following Glossary of Assessment Terms to assist the GISD community.- ACT
- The ACT test is an assessment program designed to measure a high school student’s educational development and academic preparedness for college. Students are tested in the following academic areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science. An optional writing test is available beginning February 2005.
- assessment
- Assessment is the process of systematically collecting information about students or educational programs in order to make educational decisions. The process includes, but is not limited to, gathering, describing, and quantifying information; providing feedback about progress; and evaluating instructional effectiveness.
- benchmark
- Benchmarks are descriptions of standards of information and skills that students should know and/or be able to perform at developmentally appropriate levels in their education. Acting as “checkpoints,” benchmarks are used to monitor student performance progress within and across grade levels.
- CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test)
- A norm-referenced aptitude test, CogAT measures a student’s inductive and deductive reasoning abilities and capacities in verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative tasks. Scores on this assessment reflect a student’s ability to identify relationships and demonstrate flexible thinking.
- criterion-referenced tests
- Criterion-referenced tests measure a student’s performance in order to determine what a student can do and what they know, reporting this information relative to predetermined standards. Predetermined standards can be based on curricular objectives, skills, or content area knowledge. This type of assessment does not compare students.
- ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills)
- The ITBS is a norm-referenced assessment that measures student achievement in the academic areas of reading (including vocabulary, word analysis, reading comprehension, and listening), language, mathematics, social studies, and science.
- Logramos
- Logramos is a norm-referenced achievement test to assess the academic progress of Spanish-speaking students. The Logramos measures a student’s ability to apply knowledge and concepts, as well as interpret and analyze information.
- norm-referenced tests
- Norm-referenced tests compare the achievement performance of single students with the performance of a representative sample, usually a national sample. The purpose of norm-referenced tests are to rank order student achievement across a continuum.
- SAT
- The SAT test is an assessment program designed to measure a student’s academic ability and existing knowledge. Students are tested in the following academic areas: writing, math, and critical reading.
- standardized
- Standardized assessments are designed to be administered under specific, standard conditions, resulting in a uniformity in testing environments and administration procedures. Standardization allows for the testing conditions to be equal for all test takers, enabling statistical comparison against the norm or criteria.
- TAKS ( Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills)
- The TAKS test is a criterion-referenced assessment that measures student academic performance in Texas in grades three through eleven. Students are tested in two or more of the following academic subjects each year: reading, English language arts, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students must pass all content areas of the eleventh grade test in order to be eligible to receive a Texas high school diploma.
- Tejas Lee
- Designed for students in grades K- 2, the Tejas Lee is an early reading assessment program that measures a student’s Spanish-language reading and language arts development. This assessment allows for teachers to identify students who are in need of additional Spanish-language reading/language arts instructional support and provide necessary objectives and activities to support the development of Spanish-language skills.
- TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System)
- The TELPAS is an annual assessment that measures the English language proficiency of second language learners on a scale that includes the level of beginning, intermediate, advanced and advanced high. English language proficiency is measured in four domains inthe TELPAS: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
- TPRI (Texas Primary Reading Inventory)
- Designed for students in grades K- 2, the TPRI is an early reading assessment that measures a student’s reading and language arts development. This assessment allows for teachers to identify students who are in need of additional reading/language arts instructional support and provide necessary objectives and activities to support the development of skills.