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Reliability In Assessment Reliability In Assessment Methods Of Estimating Reliability There are 5 ways of measuring the reliabilityin assessments that take place in the educational arena. These method include test-retest reliability which identified by testing the same students at two different points in time with the same test (Planty, 2010). When the method of equivalent forms to test the reliability is used the examiner tends to create two different examining tools that are used to test the same skill or ability and then both the results on both the test are correlated with each other (McMillan, 2008).

Higher the level of correlation reflects that the tests are highly reliable. When split-half method is used the questions on the examination tool that are testing for the same skills or ability are divided into two halves and the test is administered (Gullo, 2005). The results are then checked with the statistical method of correlation and higher level of correlation exhibits that the test is reliable. When the Kuder-Richardson method of testing reliability is used one tools of examination is administered and student’s scores are analyzed for reliability with the help of different formulas (Oermann, 2014).

Inter-Rater method of reliability testing is used to measure the consistency of how different examiners score students on the scores of the same examination tool (Kern, 2010). One way of doing this is by analyzing how two different raters rate the scores they have assigned to students on the same test.Factors Affecting Reliability Various factors have an impact on the reliability in assessments that take place in education. One of these factors is the quantity of evaluation tasks that have been used in a single assessment (Mislevy, 2002).

Reliability seems to be higher when the quantity is more because higher number of tasks will provide more satisfactory level of sample to test the ability or lack of ability. Another factor is spread of scores and the reliability levels are higher in cases where the spread of scores are high (Linn, 2005). This means that if there is a higher difference between the scores of different students on different tests, the tests are found to me reliable (Evans, 2014). A third factor is the difficulty of the assessment and the reliability of those tests is quite low when the tests are either too easy or too difficult (Murphy, 1995).

The reliability of too easy or too difficult tests is low because such tests results in lower spread of scores (VDOE, 2014). Another factor is the level of objectivity of the scores (Uni.edu, 2014). Those tests are considered as objective in nature on which different students having similar competence score similarly (Ary, 1972). The last factor that impacts the reliability of the test are the methods of testing the reliability (Payne, 1992).Standard Error Standard error refers to a statistical concept and is has no relation to how accurately assessments are scored.

In educational aspect standard error is a term used to refer to the difference in the scores that the students have obtained on a test and the student’s lowest as well as highest test scores that are hypothetical in nature (Salvia, 2004). ReferenceAry, D., Jacobs, L., & Razavieh, A. (1972). Introduction to research in education (1st ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Education, V. (2014). VDOE :: Standard Error of Measurement. Doe.virginia.gov. Retrieved 6 September 2014, from http://www.doe.virginia.

gov/testing/scoring/standard_error_measurement/index.shtmlEvans, S. (2014). Five Characteristics of Quality Educational Assessments - Part Two. Nwea.org. Retrieved 6 September 2014, from http://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/five-characteristics-quality-educational-assessments-part-two/Gullo, D. (2005). Understanding assessment and evaluation in early childhood education (1st ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.Kern, D., Thomas, P., & Hughes, M. (2010). Curriculum development for medical education (1st ed.).Linn, R.

, & Miller, M. (2005). Measurement and assessment in teaching (1st ed.). India: Pearson/Education.McMillan, J., & McMillan, J. (2008). Assessment essentials for standards-based education (1st ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.Mislevy, R., & Knowles, K. (2002). Performance assessments for adult education (1st ed.). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Murphy, R., Nuttall, D., & Broadfoot, P. (1995). Effective assessment and the improvement of education (1st ed.). London: Falmer Press.Oermann, M. (2014). Evaluation and testing in nursing education (1st ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Company.Payne, D. (1992).

Measuring and evaluating educational outcomes (1st ed.). New York: Merrill.Planty, M., & Carlson, D. (2010). Understanding education indicators (1st ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.Salvia, J., Ysseldyke, J., & Salvia, J. (2004). Assessment in special and inclusive education (1st ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Uni.edu,. (2014). Reliability and Validity. Retrieved 6 September 2014, from https://www.uni.edu/chfasoa/reliabilityandvalidity.htm