Achievement Tests

An achievement test is an assessment tool that measures what students have learned over a period of time. Student learning may take place in a number of domains. In the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues proposed a six-level taxonomy of cognitive learning: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The lowest level of the taxonomy, knowledge, generally requires a student to memorize facts and concepts. The next level, comprehension, is a result of more internal processing of the information a student has learned. The more advanced levels, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, involve more complex skills and mental processes. Student learning may also occur in the affective domain. For example, it is widely believed that student motivation toward a subject may change as a result of instructions. There is also the psychomotor domain that deals with a student's use of muscles, such as typing and athletic skills. Unfortunately, assessment in the affective and psychomotor domains seldom receives adequate, if any, attention.

The various types of learning suggest different assessment approaches. For instance, the knowledge level of the cognitive domain is usually assessed through the use of multiple-choice items and other traditional types of test questions. The assessment of a student's [Page 16]ability to apply knowledge to solve problems, however, seems to be best accomplished through more complicated assessment tasks, such as an open-ended essay question or a performance task. The assessment of psychomotor skills may also be conducted through a performance task. Student attitude or interest is usually assessed through either classroom observation or, more formally, a survey. An achievement test, however, is often perceived as a traditional paper-andpencil test. Although performance tasks, classroom observations, and surveys are all important tools used in assessing student achievement, they are seldom considered achievement tests.

An achievement test is often differentiated from other forms of traditional tests. It differs from an intelligence test since it assesses student learning rather than student ability or intelligence. It is also distinguishable from an aptitude test because the latter measures a student's learning ability and potential to succeed in future studies. Despite this, an achievement test may be used to predict a student's future academic success. Take for an example the Scholastic Aptitude/Achievement Test (SAT) that is used for college admission. The SAT Reasoning Test is an aptitude test used to predict a student's overall college GPA. The SAT Subject Tests are achievement tests that are used by many institutions of higher education for predicting student academic success in specific subject areas.