Familiar Strangers: Criterion-Referenced Measures in Communication Disorders
Publication: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
Volume 27, Number 2
Pages 122-131
Abstract
Although frequently used in the assessment and treatment of communication disorders, criterion-referenced measures are often not well understood, making them both familiar and alien—thus, familiar strangers. This article is designed to better acquaint test users with the characteristics associated with the use and evaluation of criterion-referenced measures, particularly as they differ from norm-referenced measures. Guidelines are proposed for the evaluation and selection of standardized criterion-referenced measures as well as for the development and ongoing evaluation of informal criterion-referenced measures.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
REFERENCES
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education. (1985). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1988, March). Guidelines for determining threshold level for speech. Asha, 30, 85–89.
Bennett, R. E. (1993). On the meanings of constructed response. In R.E. Bennett & W.C. Ward (Eds.), Construction versus choice in cognitive measurement: Issues in constructed response, performance testing, and portfolio assessment (pp. 1–27). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Berk, R. P. (1984a). Conducting the item analysis. In R.P. Berk (Ed.), A guide to criterion-referenced test construction (pp. 97–143). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Berk, R. P. (Ed.). (1984b). A guide to criterion-referenced test construction. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bernthal, J. E., & Bankson, N. W. (1993). Articulation and phonological disorders (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Brown, J. R. (1989). The truth about scores children achieve on tests. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 20, 366–371.
Brown, R. (1973). A first language, the early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Carhart, R., & Jerger, J. F. (1959). Preferred method for clinical determination of pure-tone thresholds. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 24, 330–345.
Carver, R. P. (1974). Two dimensions of tests: Psychometric and edumetrlc. American Psychologist, 29, 512–518.
Cizek, G. J. (1993). Reconsidering standards and criteria Journal of Educational Measurement, 30, 93–106.
Cole, K. N., Mills, P. E., & Dale, P. S. (1989). Examination of test-retest and split-half reliability for measures derived from language samples of young handicapped children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 20, 259–267.
Colton, R. H., & Casper, J. K. (1990). Understanding voice problems: A physiological perspective for diagnosis and treatment. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
Eger, D., Mient, M. G., & Cushman, B. B. (1986, May). When is enough enough?: Articulation therapy dismissal considerations in the public schools, Asha, 28, 23–25.
Feldt, L. S., & Brennan, R. L. (1989). Reliability. In R.L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (3rd ed., pp. 105–146). New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Co.
Gitomer, D. H. (1993). Performance assessment and educational measurement. In R.E. Bennett & W.C. Ward (Eds.), Construction versus choice in cognitive measurement: Issues in constructed response, performance testing, and portfolio assessment (pp. 241–263). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Glaser, R. (1963). Instructional technology and the measurement of learning outcomes. American Psychologist, 18, 5190521.
Glaser, R., & Klaus, D. J. (1962). Proficiency measurement: Assessing human performance. In R. Gagne (Ed.), Psychological principles in systems development (pp. 419–476). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Gronlund, N. E. (1982). Constructing achievement tests. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Hambleton, R. K. (1984). Validating the test scores. In R.P. Berk (Ed.), A guide to criterion-referenced test construction (pp. 199–223). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Haynes, W. O., Pindzola, R. H., & Emerick, L. L. (1992) Diagnosis and evaluation in speech pathology (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Hutchinson, T. (1988, Spring). Coming changes in speech and language testing. Hearsay: Journal of the Ohio Speech and Hearing Association, 10–13, 27.
Khan, L., & Lewis, N. (1986). Khan-Lewis Phonological Analysis. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Lahey, M. (1988). Language disorders and language development. New York: Macmillan.
Leonard, L., Prutting, C. A., Perozzi, J. A., & Berkley, R. K. (1978, May). Nonstandardized approaches to the assessment of language behaviors. Asha, 20, 371–379.
Lewis, B. A., & Freebairn, L. (1992). Residual effects of preschool phonology disorders in grade school, adolescence, and adulthood. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 819–831.
Ling, D. (1976). Speech and the hearing-impaired child: Theory and practice. Washington, DC: Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.
McCauley, R. J., & Swisher, L. (1984a). Psychometric review of language and articulation tests for preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 49, 34–42.
McCauley, R. J., & Swisher, L. (1984b). Use and misuse of norm-referenced tests in clinical assessment: A hypothetical case. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 42, 338–348.
McReynolds, L. V., & Elbert, M. (1981). Criteria for phonological process analysis. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 46, 197–204.
Messick, S. (1989). Validity. In R.L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (3rd ed., pp. 13–103). New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Co.
Millman, J., & Greene, J. (1989). The specification and development of tests of achievement and ability. In R.L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (3rd ed., pp. 335–366). New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Co.
Muma, J., Pierce, S., & Muma, D. (1983, June). Language training in speech-language pathology: Substantive domains. Asha, 25, 35–40.
Nelson, N. W. (1989). Curriculum-based language assessment and intervention. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 20, 170–184.
Nelson, N. W. (1993). Childhood language disorders in context: Infancy through adolescence. New York: Merrill.
Newhoff, M., & Leonard, L. B. (1983). Diagnosis of developmental language disorders. In I.J. Meitus & B. Weinberg (Eds.), Diagnosis in speech-language pathology (pp. 71–112). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Nitko, A. M. (1983). Criterion-referenced interpretations. In A.M. Nitko (Ed.), Educational tests and measurement: An introduction (pp. 442–463). New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich.
Nitko, A. M. (1989). Designing tests that are integrated with instruction. In R.L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (3rd ed., pp. 447–474). New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Co.
Popham, W. J. (1984). Specifying the domain of content or behaviors. In R.P. Berk (Ed.), A guide to criterion-referenced test construction (pp. 29–48). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Reed, V. A. (1994). An introduction to children with language disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Merrill.
Richardson, E., & DiBenedetto, B. (1985). Decoding Skills Test. Parkton, MD: York Press.
Riley, G. D. (1994). Stuttering Severity Instrument for Children and Adults (3rd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Salvia, J., & Ysseldyke, J. E. (1991). Assessment (5th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Shepard, L. A. (1984). Setting performance standards. In R.P. Berk (Ed.), A guide to criterion-referenced test construction (pp. 169–198). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Shriberg, L., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1982). Phonological disorders III. A procedure for assessing severity of involvement. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 47, 256–270.
Smit, A. B. (1993). Phonologic error distributions in the Iowa-Nebraska articulation norms project: Word-initial consonant clusters. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 931–947.
Snyder-McLean, L., & McLean, J. E. (1988). Sociocom-municative competence in the severely/profoundly handicapped child: Assessment. In D.E. Yoder & R.D. Kent (Eds.), Decision making in speech-language pathology (pp. 64–65). Philadelphia: B. C. Decker.
St. Louis, K. O., & Ruscello, D. M. (1987). Oral Speech Mechanism Screening Examination (Revised). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Stoel-Gammon, C., & Dunn, C. (1985). Normal and disordered phonology in children. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Subkoviak, M. J. (1984). Estimating the reliability of mastery-nonmastery classifications. In R.P. Berk (Ed.), A guide to criterion-referenced test construction (pp. 267–291). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Taylor, O. L., & Anderson, N. B. (1988). Communication behaviors that vary from standard norms: Assessment. In D.E. Yoder & R.D. Kent (Eds.), Decision making in speech-language pathology (pp. 84–85). Philadelphia: B. C. Decker.
Terrell, S. L., Arensberg, K., & Rosa, M. (1992). Parent-child comparative analysis: A criterion-referenced method for the nondiscriminatory assessment of a child who spoke a relatively uncommon dialect of English. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 23, 34–42.
Tomblin, J. B. (1994). Perspectives on diagnosis. In J.B. Tomblin, H.L. Morris, & D.C. Spriestersbach (Eds.), Diagnosis in speech-language pathology (pp. 1–28). San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.
Vetter, D. K. (1988). Designing informal assessment procedures. In D.E. Yoder & R.D. Kent (Eds.), Decision making in speech-language pathology (pp. 192–193). Philadelphia: B. C. Decker.
Wallach, G. P., & Butler, K. G. (1994). Language learning disabilities in school-age children and adolescents: Some principles and applications. New York: Macmillan.
Weiss, C. E., Gordon, M. E., & Lilly white, H. S. (1987). Articulatory and phonologic disorders. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
Windsor, J. (1994). Children’s comprehension and production of derivational suffixes. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 408–117.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
History
- Received: Apr 21, 1994
- Accepted: Nov 8, 1994
- Published in issue: Apr 1, 1996
Keywords
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Metrics
View all metricsCitations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.
Citing Literature
- Gerard H. Poll, William J. Boone, Janis Petru, Evaluation of a New Adolescent Social Communication Assessment: The Transition Pragmatics Interview, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00709, 67, 7, (2353-2366), (2024).
- Gerard H. Poll, Madison Mayes, Janis Petru, Evidence to support test interpretation: Evaluating the content validity of a new item set for the Transition Pragmatics Interview, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10.1080/17549507.2023.2287424, 26, 6, (809-819), (2024).
- Caitlin Coughler, Taylor Bardell, Mary Ann Schouten, Kristen Smith, Lisa M. D. Archibald, Narrative Retell Assessment Using “Frog” Stories: A Practice-Based Research Speech-Language Pathology Partnership Exploring Story Equivalency, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00124, 54, 4, (1249-1266), (2023).
- Gerard H. Poll, Janis Petru, Exploring the contributions of expert review and cognitive interviewing to evaluating the content validity of items for anew measure of adolescent social communication, the Transition Pragmatics Interview, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 10.1080/02699206.2022.2148131, 37, 12, (1124-1140), (2022).
- Thilo Müller, Holger Prüß, Kirsten Richardt, Bonn Stuttering Therapy - intensive inpatient interval therapy in Germany for adolescents and adults, Listy klinické logopedie, 10.36833/lkl.2021.006, 5, 1, (16-23), (2021).
- Gerard H. Poll, Caitlyn Maskalunas, Lauren Walls, Samantha Durbin, Haley Hunken, Janis Petru, Measurement Properties of Social Communication Assessments for Transition-Age Adolescents: A Systematic Review, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 10.1044/2021_LSHSS-20-00141, 52, 3, (917-936), (2021).
- Tiffany Hutchins, Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale, Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders, 10.1007/978-3-319-91280-6_803, (4019-4022), (2021).
- Sarita L. Eisenberg, Using General Language Performance Measures to Assess Grammar Learning, Topics in Language Disorders, 10.1097/TLD.0000000000000214, 40, 2, (135-148), (2020).
- Leah Fabiano-Smith, Standardized Tests and the Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 10.1044/2018_PERS-SIG1-2018-0018, 4, 1, (58-66), (2019).
- Douglas B. Petersen, Arlee Stoddard, Psychometric Requirements of Oral and Written Language Progress Monitoring Assessments, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 10.1044/persp3.SIG1.180, 3, 1, (180-197), (2018).
View Options
Sign In Options
ASHA member? If so, log in with your ASHA website credentials for full access.
Member Login