Validity, Reliability, and Accuracy - Assignment Example

? Validity, Reliability, and Accuracy Validity, Reliability, and Accuracy Learning Outcome Explain the five functions ofmanagement and their importance in organizations. Assessment Part One: Objective Questions Directions: Circle the letter that most accurately answers the question. 1) Which of the following is not one of the five functions of management, as discussed in class? A) Planning B) Staffing C) Collaborating D) Leading 2) Which function of management involves the mapping of exactly how an organization is to achieve a particular goal? A) Planning B) Organizing C) Staffing D) Leading 3) Which function of management involves a manager doing more than simply planning, organizing, and staffing a team to achieve a particular goal? A) Collaborating B) Leading C) Controlling D) Planning 4) True or False: The amount of time managers at all levels spend on each of these functions will remain the same, no matter what level of management or specific organization. A) True B) False 5) True or False: Managers need to continuously check results against goals and take any corrective actions necessary to make sure that his or her team’s plans remain on track. A) True B) False Short Answer Section: Answer each of the following 3 prompts using 3-5 sentences per response. 6) According to the information presented in class, and in your text, what is the importance of effectively performing all five of the stated functions of management? 7) What would happen if a manager staffed the organization appropriately but failed to lead? 8) As discussed in class, are any of the five functions of management more important than another? Explain. Essay Response: Write about the following topic in proper five-paragraph essay form We have discussed five functions of effective managers. Describe each of the five functions and how they are related to one another. Consider what would happen if one of the functions were missing from a manager’s work ethic. Be detailed in your analysis and make sure that you have a proper introduction, three main points in the body, and a conclusion. Analysis of the Assessment It is important that any assessment given in the classroom, no matter the topic or level, be valid, reliable, accurate, and as error-free as possible. This is essential not only to be fair to the student but also get an accurate representative of the class as a whole. In addition, writing such an assessment upfront will alleviate the potential for problems down the road. Students may, for example, become frustrated if an exam is perceived to be unfair. Much time may be spent after the exam with students questioning the very integrity of the assessment itself. In addition, if an exam does not properly test student comprehension about the given material, the teacher may reach a false assumption about the performance of the class, and thus their own teaching as well. With these aims in mind, the intent of this paper is to examine the validity and reliability of the hypothetical business management exam given in the preceding two pages. Validity When considering whether or not a teacher should be concerned over the poor performance shown by their students on a particular exam, one should first look at the assessment itself (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2013, p. 326). Exams need to be valid before their results can really be accepted. Simply because the class, on average, received a failing grade on an exam does not, in itself, indicate that they did not comprehend the material. Upon analyzing the exam, the teacher may discover certain problems with the test that make it invalid in the first place. It could well happen that the teacher re-writes a valid exam, gives it to the same set of students, and they all perform marvelously. For this reason, and others, the validity of any given assessment must be judged before any results on the part of the students are considered and recorded. One way to begin testing the validity of an exam is to consider the grade level of the material. If the exam is given to third grade students, then the questions need to be at the third-grade level, not the fifth (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2013, p. 326). For this area, the hypothetical assessment on management provided in this paper is certainly valid. The material is geared for high school business class. As such, concepts are judged to be at the high school level, and college level theory was not tested in any of the ten questions on the exam. In addition, an assessment should have content validity. This simply means that the questions need to relate directly back to what the students realistically expected to be covered on the exam in the first place (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2013, p. 327). In other words, if there were surprises, then the exam would lack content validity. The assessment on management, for example, has ten questions. Each of the ten questions relate directly back to the stated learning outcome for the unit. In addition, each question on the assessment clearly relates to the material discussed in class, on assignments, or in course readings. Reliability According to Kubiszyn and Borich (2013), “The reliability of a test refers to the consistency with which it yields the same rank for individuals who take the test more than once” (p. 338). The indication here is that a student within a given class should rank in nearly the same place every time if the same exam is given to the same class. This indicates reliability because if the exam were so difficult that most people in the class simply guessed the answers, then this would be represented by a change in rank each time the exam was administered (Kubiszyn & Borch, 2013, p. 338). There are many different ways to test reliability, but Kubiszyn and Borich write about test-retest, alternative form, and internal consistency. This can involve giving the same test again, one week later, and then closely examining the correlation of scores earned on each of the two exams. If they are similar, then the test can be deemed somewhat reliable based on those results. If, however, the scores are all over the chart, then there should be some question as to the reliability of the exam. A second way to test the reliability of an exam is to provide an alternate test covering the same material but using different questions. Each exam is given to the same group of students and, again, there should be a high correlation between scores in order for the exams to be deemed reliable. Finally, looking at internal consistency can test reliability. For the hypothetical exam given above, reliability cannot really be measured at this time. If, however, the scores on the exam indicate a potential problem with the reliability of the exam, then one of the three options presented in this section could be utilized. To start, if the scores on the exam were much lower than the teacher and students’ expectations, then the teacher could consider creating an alternative exam, measuring the same objectives, and administering it to the class within a reasonable time frame. If the scores were similar, then the test was likely reliable and other measures must be considered as to why the class performed poorly (i.e. they simply did not study, or the instructor did not clearly present the material). Accuracy and Error In addition to an exam being valid and reliable, it is also critical that the assessment be accurate and error-free as much as possible. According to Kubiszyn and Borich (2013), “No test measures perfectly, and many tests fail to measure as well as we would like them to” (p. 348). The key is to realize that there will almost be some level of error in an exam, but the teacher must work hard to minimize that error to the greatest degree possible. As with any area of life, the source of an error in an exam can be the result of a variety of factors. The four main sources of error in an assessment are: test takers, the test itself, test administration, and test scoring. When there is an error in an exam, the first inclination is to blame the test maker. This is not always the case. Test takers could be the root of the problem. They could, for example, be tired or sick. In addition, they might accidentally see another classmate’s response to a particular question, causing them to question the accuracy of their own response (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2013, p. 357). Any change in the way an individual takes the exam from the norm can be considered to be a test taker error. One way to prevent this type of error on the hypothetical assessment that forms the basis of this paper is to eliminate distractions and monitor students for possible illness. There could also be errors within the test itself. This could entail having trick questions, a reading level that is too high for the students being tested, questions that are not clearly worded or are ambiguous, test items that are simply too difficulty, or items that are poorly written (Kuiszyn & Borich, 2013, p. 358). These errors have been eliminated to the greatest extent possible on the management exam by reviewing each question word by word. The items all relate directly back to the unit objective, are clearly worded, not ambiguous, and are at the level of the students being tested. This works to make the assessment that much more accurate. An exam could also have an error in its administration. We know from previous studies, for example, that the physical environment of a classroom can impact student performance. If the room is too hot, has poor lighting, or is an uncomfortable seating arrangement, students may not perform at their best. This would be an error in test administration. In addition, exam items and instructions should be clearly worded and the teacher should clearly explain their expectations to the students. Finally, the attitude of the test administrator is important as well. For the management assessment, all items have been reviewed and the instructions clearly given, right down to making sure students know how to mark their exam. To provide more accuracy on the exam day, the room needs to be comfortable and the test administrator should be welcoming and warm. Finally, there could be an error in scoring. This is particularly important to monitor if a human scores the exam. For this exam, the teacher can eliminate this error, to a great extent, by not scoring the exam when they are tired or in a rush. It is advisable to score an exam in batches, rather than all at once, to ensure that fatigue does no impact the marking of each response. This, combined with all other areas of eliminating errors, will serve to improve the accuracy of the exam and contribute to its reliability and validity. References Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. (2013). Educational testing and measurement: Classroom application and practice. New York: Wiley and Sons. Read More