Ch 12 Reading

 Typically measure a single aptitude – such as clerical abilities, motor dexterity, and artistic talents are considered to be too specialized to justify inclusion in multiple aptitude batteries  Specialized aptitude tests were designed to measure these specific abilities  Clerical Ability o Skills needed for office and clerical duties  Mechanical Ability o Ability to learn about mechanical objects  Psychomotor Abilities o One’s capacity to perform body motor movements with precision, coordination, or strength Readiness Test  Readiness is applied to aptitude tests used to predict success when a child enters school  Historically defined as readiness to learn specific material and be successful in a typical school context  Most readiness tests assess facets of the following 5 domains: o Physical: Impairments in sensory functions, motor skills, illnesses or medical conditions o Social and Emotions: Age appropriate social skills, psychological well-being, self-perceptions, and interpersonal interactions o Learning: Attention, curiosity, and enthusiasm for learning o Language o Cognition and General Knowledge  Most readiness tests designed to assess areas related to school tasks  Predictive validity extremely limited their use in making decisions about K5 enrollment is highly questionable  Potential for cultural bias when assessing school readiness  Schools use to judge whether children are “ready” for K5 or 1 st grade 4. Explain some key areas assessed with specialized aptitude tests, such as clerical ability, mechanical ability, and artistic ability 5. Describe admissions tests and explain their purpose Admissions Tests  Designed to predict performance in a particular educational program  Students who score high on admissions tests would most likely perform better in college than those who don’t  Combination of verbal, quant, writing, and analytical reasoning skills or discipline- speicfic knowledge  Key psychometric aspect is predictive validity, which is typically evaluated by correlating test scores with a measure of academic performance, such as first year HPA, graduate GPA, degree attainment, etc.