Towards the development and standardization of the ULS Achievement Test in Arithmetic (ULS-ATA)

• Main Author: Durano, Angelina M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1987
• Subjects: Achievement tests; Arithmetic > Examinations; questions; etc; Education; Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/43
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study attempted to develop and standardize an achievement test in arithmetic for the freshmen students of the University Laboratory Schools of the University of Southern Mindanao (ULS-USM). The test construction started with the planning which mainly involved the preparation of the test table of specifications. Five content areas were covered namely: Numerals, Whole Numbers Fractions Decimals, Percentages and Ratio and Proportion and Measurement. Knowledge and understanding, computation and application were the behavioral levels included. Item writing and review followed. The items were of the multiple-choice type. Pretest forms were prepared and administered. Content validity was partly established. Item analysis showed that the items were of average difficulty but discriminated poorly. Typographical errors and poor distractors prompted item revisions. Only 72 out of the 150 items pretested were accepted. Majority of the acceptable items and a set of pretest items composed Final Form-A of the test which is yet to be administered. Further pretesting is necessary to generate more items to fill all the cells in the test blueprint. A student's performance on the scorable items of Final Form-A can already provide limited information regarding the extent of his or her arithmetic learning. It was recommended that the development and standardization process be completed to establish all the important test attributes.