Introduction
Educational measurement is the science and practice of obtaining information about characteristics of students, such as their knowledge, skills, abilities, and interests. Measurement in education includes the development of instruments or protocols for obtaining information, procedures for analyzing and evaluating the quality of that information, and strategies for communicating the information to audiences, such as educators, policymakers, parents, and students. All measurement in education has the common aims of (1) arriving at defensible conclusions regarding students’ ability, achievement, or interests, (2) gauging student progress toward specified educational goals, and (3) improving teaching and learning. Educational measurement is closely related to the concepts of testing, assessment, and evaluation. Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to events based on an established set of rules. In educational measurement, the “events” under consideration are students’ test performances and, in the simplest case, the numerals assigned might be the students’ numbers of correct responses. An example of a set of “rules” in this situation would be that one point is earned for each correct response, zero points are earned for an incorrect response, and the sum of these values is the student’s total test score. Percentage correct is another commonly used metric, although a variety of transformations of raw scores may be used. Testing uses measurement to support inferences about students’ knowledge, skills, or abilities. A test is any systematic sample of behavior obtained under controlled conditions. In educational measurement, the behaviors of interest would encompass, for example, mathematics problem solving, interest in various occupations, proficiency in reading narrative texts, skill in giving a speech, building a birdhouse, writing an essay, and so on. Because it is not possible to observe all of what a student knows or can do, educational measurement is based on samples of these behaviors. Consequently, when a test is administered, inference is always required. Because it is typically not the student’s performance on the specific math problems or on the specific essay that is of interest, those behaviors are considered to be samples of the student’s underlying problem-solving skill or writing ability. Inference is an informed conclusion, based on the sample of behavior, about the student’s more fundamental level of knowledge or skill. In educational testing, the conditions of testing are controlled so that inferences about differences in students’ knowledge, skill, or ability can be confidently attributed to the underlying characteristics being measured and not to variation in testing conditions. Evaluation is ascribing value or worth to the information collected via measurement or testing. A common form of educational evaluation is grading, where a value label (such as “Pass,” “Fail,” or “A”) is used to connote information about the merit of the student’s performance. Finally, assessment refers to the process of gathering and synthesizing information from multiple sources—some or all of which may be tests—for the purposes of discovering and documenting students’ strengths and weaknesses, planning and enhancing instruction, or evaluating and making decisions about students.
General Overviews
The works in this section provide broad, introductory treatments of measurement in education. These introductory works can be grouped into three general categories. The first category includes textbooks that provide applied overviews of educational measurement. The second category comprises introductions to the theoretical, psychometric, and statistical models and methods that underlie educational and psychological measurement. The third category includes critiques of testing in education.
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FAQs
An example of measurement in education
What is the measurement of education? ›
Educational measurement refers to the use of educational assessments and the analysis of data such as scores obtained from educational assessments to infer the abilities and proficiencies of students. The approaches overlap with those in psychometrics.
How is level of education measured? ›
Data on educational attainment are derived from a single question that asks, "What is the highest grade of school...has completed, or the highest degree...has received?" This question was first implemented in the 1990 Decennial Census and changed in the Current Population Survey in 1992.
How is the US education system different from other countries? ›
The US education system is known for its flexibility, allowing students to specialize in certain areas of study and elect to take certain classes. In contrast, many other countries require students to study a wide range of subjects, including math, science, history, literature, and foreign languages.
Why is measurement important in education? ›
Educational measurement helps to know a particular phase of child's personality. Evaluation is a comprehensive and continuous process which assesses overall personality of a child. It is quantitative as well as qualitative description of pupils' achievement.
What is the role of measurement in education? ›
The measurement process helps in assessing personality, student achievement, and efficiency of the teaching-learning process while identifying the deficiencies and incentives required for growth and improvement.
What are the four scales of measurement in education? ›
Psychologist Stanley Stevens developed the four common scales of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Each scale of measurement has properties that determine how to properly analyse the data.
What is the simplest form of measurement in education? ›
Nominal Scale:
It is the simplest form of measurement i.e. it helps in just identifying. Categorical data are measured on nominal scales which merely assign labels to distinguish categories.
What is the simplest form of measurement levels in education? ›
The nominal level of measurement is the simplest level. "Nominal" means "existing in name only." With the nominal level of measurement all we can do is to name or label things. Even when we use numbers, these numbers are only names. We cannot perform any arithmetic with nominal level data.
What is the highest level of measurement in education? ›
The highest level of measurement is ratio as using it, we can categorize the data, rank the data, and evenly space it.
Ordinal variables
A classic representative of the ordinal scale are school grades, here a ranking can be formed, but it cannot be said that the distance between A and B is the same as the distance between B and C.
How do you measure years of education? ›
Elementary School: Grades 1-5 (or 6), which means 5 (or 6) years. Middle School/Junior High: Typically grades 6-8 (or 7-8), which adds 2-3 years. High School: Grades 9-12, which adds 4 years.
How is education divided in USA? ›
K-12 education system
K-12 stands for 'from Kindergarten to 12th grade'. This equates roughly to a school starting age of around five through to Grade 12 at around the age of 18. The system is broken down into three stages: elementary school (Grades K–5), middle school (Grades 6–8) and high school (Grades 9–12).
How is the US education system divided? ›
Primary, or elementary, education lasts until fifth grade, middle school or junior high school covers sixth through eighth grade, followed by secondary education in ninth through 12th grades. Secondary education can cover both college-preparatory curriculum or vocational training.
What is unique about the US education system? ›
A. The American Educational system includes facts, figures, and data with an open-ended, problem-solving-based curriculum that involves collaboration, trial and error methodologies and risk tasking. The US education system opens up unlimited opportunities not only in the US but all around the globe.
What type of measurement is years of education? ›
So, the years of education fall under the interval-ratio level of measurement, which is the answer in C.
What is measurement in educational statistics? ›
Educational measurement assigns numbers to individuals based on observed data to represent individuals' educational properties such as abilities, aptitudes, achievements, progress, and performance.
What is a nominal measurement in education? ›
A nominal scale is the 1st level of measurement scale in which the numbers serve as “tags” or “labels” to classify or identify the objects. A nominal scale usually deals with the non-numeric variables or the numbers that do not have any value. A nominal scale variable is classified into two or more categories.
