1

PROF ED 7
EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION
MODULE NO. 6

I. TITLE: UTILIZATION OF ASSESSMENT DATA

II. INTRODUCTION

Statistics is a very important tool in the utilization of the assessment

data most especially in describing, analyzing, and interpreting the
performance of the students in the assessment procedures. The teachers
should have the necessary background in the statistical procedures used in
the assessment of student learning in order to give a correct description
and description and interpretation about the achievement of the students in
a certain test whether classroom assessment conducted by the teacher,
division or national assessment conducted by the Department of Education.

In this module, you will know the important tools in analyzing and
interpreting assessment results. These statistical tools are measures of
central tendency, measures of variation, skewness, correlation and different
types of converted scores.

III. LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. identify the branches of Statistics
2. identify levels or scales of measurement
3. identify the uses of the different measures of central tendency
4. identify the different properties of the measure of central tendency
5. identify the uses of the different measures of variability
5. differentiate the different types of kurtosis
7. differentiate types of skewness & correlation
8. know and differentiate the different kinds of standard scores

IV. LEARNING CONTENT (KEY CONCEPTS)

A. DEFINITION OF STATISTICS
STATISTICS – is a branch of science, which deals with the collection,
presentation, analysis and interpretation of quantitative data.

BRANCHES OF STATISTICS
1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS – a method concerned with collecting,
describing and analyzing a set of data without drawing conclusions (or
inferences) about a large group.
2. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS – a branch of statistics, concerned with the
analysis of a subset of data leading to predictions or inferences about the
entire set of data.
 2

B. LEVELS OR SCALES OF MEASUREMENT

LEVEL/SCALE CHARACTERISTICS EXAMPLE

1. Nominal • Merely aims to identify or
label a class of variable
2. Ordinal • Numbers are used to express
ranks or to denote position in
the ordering
3. Interval • Assumes equal intervals or
distances between any two
starting at an arbitrary zero
4. Ratio • Has all the characteristics of
an interval scale except that it
has an absolute zero point
Numbers carried on the
backs of the athletes
Oliver ranked 1st in his
class while Luisa 2nd.
Fahrenheit and Centigrade
measures of temperature
*Zero point does not mean
an absolute absence of
warmth or cold or zero in
the test does not mean
complete absence of
learning
Height, weight
*a zero weight means no
weight at all.

C. SHAPES, DISTRIBUTIONS & DISPERSION OF DATA

1. Symmetrically Shaped Test Score Distributions

a. Normal Distribution or Bell Shaped Curve
b. Rectangular Distribution
c. U-Shaped Distribution
2. Skewed Distributions or Test Scores
a. Positively Skewed Distribution (mean < median < mode ) ; difficult
b. Negatively Skewed Distribution (mode > median > mean )
3. Unimodal, Bimodal & Multimodal Distributions of Test Scores
a. Unimodal Distribution – there’s one most common score
b. Bimodal Distribution – there’s two most common score
c. Multimodal Distribution – there’s more than two most common
score
4. Width and Location of Score Distributions
a. narrow, tall distribution: Homogeneous, low performance
b. narrow, short distribution: homogeneous, high performance
c. wide, short distribution: heterogeneous performance
 3

5. Types of Kurtosis Curve

KURTOSIS
The degree of tailedness of a distribution is measured by kurtosis.
It tells us the extent to which the distribution is more or less outlier-prone
(heavier or light-tailed) than the normal distribution.
a. Leptokurtic Curve
If the curve of a distribution is more outlier prone (or heavier-tailed)
than a normal or mesokurtic curve then it is referred to as a Leptokurtic
curve.
b. Mesokurtic Curve
The normal curve is called Mesokurtic curve.
c. Platykurtic Curve
If a curve is less outlier prone (or lighter-tailed) than a normal
curve, it is called as a platykurtic curve.

D. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
The first step in data analysis is to describe, or summarize the data
Using descriptive statistics.

I. MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY When to Use & Characteristics

• Numerical values which describe
the average or typical performance
of give group in terms of certain
attributes.
• a numerical index which typifies or
best represents the whole
distribution
• the point or scale around which
scores tend to group
• the number (resulting from
computation) which represents the
average performance of a given

group of subjects in terms of
certain attributes
• Basis in determining whether the
group is performing better or
poorer than the other groups.
a. Mean
b. Median
c. Mode
II. MEASURES OF VARIABILITY
• Indicate or describe how spread the
scores are. The larger the measure
of variability, the more spread the
scores are and the group is said to
be heterogeneous; the smaller the
less spread the scores are and the
group is said to be homogeneous.
a. Range
b. Standard Deviation
c. Quartile Deviation or Semi-Interquartile
Range
III. MEASURES OF
RELATIONSHIP/CORRELATION
• Describe the degree of relationship
or correlation between two
variables (academic achievement
and motivation). It is expressed in
4
Arithmetic average, used when the
distribution is normal/ symmetrical or bell-
0shaped
Most reliable/stable
Point in a distribution above and below
which are 50% of the scores/cases;
Midpoint of a distribution;
Used when the distribution is skewed
Most frequent/common score is a
distribution; opposite of the mean,
unreliable/unstable;
Used as a quick description in terms of
average/typical performance of the group.
When to Use & Characteristics
The difference between the highest and
lowest score plus one
Counterpart of the mode, it is also
unreliable/unstable
Used as a quick, rough estimate of
measure of variability
The counterpart of the mean, used also
when the distribution is normal or
symmetrical;
Customarily represented by the letters S
or SD and the Greek letter “sigma - ᵟ” for
population
Defined as the square root of the sum of
squared deviation scores from the mean
divide by the number of cases
Reliable/stable and so widely used
Defined as one-half of the difference
between quartile 3 (75th percentile) and
quartile 1 (25th percentile) in a distribution
Counterpart of the median
A measure of variability that avoid the
undue influence of the extreme scores
Used also when the distribution is skewed.
When to Use & Characteristics

terms of correlation coefficient
from -1 to 0 to 1.
a. Pearson r
b. Spearman Rank-order Correlation or
Spearman Rho
IV. MEASURE OF RELATIVE POSITION
• Indicate where a score is in relation
to all other scores in the
distribution; they make it possible
to compare the performance of an
individual on two or more different
tests.
a. Percentile Ranks
b. Standard Scores (z-scores)
c. Stanine Scores
d. t-scores
5
Most appropriate measure of correlation
when sets of data are of interval or ratio
type;
Most stable measure of correlation;
Used when the relationship between the
two variables is a linear one
Most appropriate measure of correlation
when variable are expressed as ranks
instead of scores or when the data
represent an ordinal scale;
When to Use & Characteristics
Indicates the percentage of scores that fall
below a given score;
Appropriate for data representing ordinal
scale, although frequently computed for
interval data. Thus the median of a set of
scores corresponds to the 50th percentile
A measure of relative position which is
appropriate when the data represent an
interval or ratio scale;
A z-score expresses how far a score is
from the mean in terms of standard
deviation units;
Allows all scores from different tests to be
compared;
In cases of negative values transforms z-
scores to T-scores (multiply z-scores by
10 plus 50)
Standard scores that tell the location of a
raw score in a specific segment in an
normal distribution which is divided into 9
segments, numbered from a low of 1
through a high of 9.
Scores falling within the boundaries of
these segments are assigned one of these
numbers (standard 9)
Tells the location of a score in a normal
distribution having a mean of 50 and a
standard deviation of 10.
 6

❖ INTERPRETATIONS
1. INTERPRETATION OF MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

• The computed value represents the average performance of a given group and
becomes the basis in determining whether one group performed better or poor
than the other groups.
2. INTERPRETATION OF STANDARD DEVIATION

• The computed value indicates how spread out the scores are. One standard
deviation below and above the mean includes around 68.26% of the cases and
measuring off two standard deviation units on each side of the mean includes
between these two points approximately 95% of the cases and three standard
deviation units over 99% of the cases is included. It helps in determining how
many students performed about the mean or average, above average or below
average.
3. INTERPRETATION OF QUARTILE DEVIATION

• In a normal, taking the median and add and subtract 1 quartile deviation on each
side of it includes approximately 50% of the cases. In the same manner, if 4
quartile deviations are measured off on each side of the median in a large sample
practically all cases will be included. As a result, 8m quartile deviations cover the
range, as do also 6 standard deviations, when N is large.

STANDARD SCORES

TYPES OF SCORES INTERPRETATION

Percentiles/Percentile Ranks Reflect the percentage of students in the
norm group surpassed at each raw score in
the distribution

Indicates the percentage of scores that lies

below a given score
Linear Standard Scores (z-scores) Number of standard deviation units a score
is above (or below) the mean of a given
distribution

Used to convert a raw score to standard

score to standard score to determine how
far a raw score lies from the mean in
standard deviation units. From this, we can
determine whether an individual student
performs well in the examination compared
to the performance of the whole class.

The z-score value indicates the distance

between the given raw score and the mean
value in units of the standard deviation.

The z-value is positive when the raw score

is above the mean while the z is negative
when the raw score is below the mean.
 7

This is very essential when we compare the

performance of the student in his subjects
or the performance of two students that
belongs to different groups. It can
determine the exact location of the scores
whether above or below the mean and how
many standard deviation units it is from the
mean.

Stanines Location of a score in a specific segment of

a normal distribution of scores

Stanines 1,2 and 3 reflect below average

performance.

Stanines 4,5 and 6 reflect average

performance

Stanines 7, 8 and 9 reflect above average

performance.

Used to compare two or more distributions

of data, particularly the scores. Estimate or
compute probabilities of events involving
normal distributions.

STANINE PERCENTAGE DESCRIPTION

OF SCORES
1 4% Very poor
2 7% Poor
3 12% Below average
4 17% Slightly below
average
5 20% Average
6 17% Slightly above
average
7 12% Considerably
above average
8 7% Superior
9 4% Very superior
Normalized Standard Score (T-score or Location of score in a normal distribution
normalized 50 ± 10 system) having a mean of 50 and a standard
deviation of 10.

There are two possible values of z-score,

positive z if the raw score is above the mean
and negative if the raw score is below the
mean.

To convert the z-score equivalent of the raw

score and use the formula T-score = 10z +
50.
 8

❖ MEASURES OF SKEWNESS
❖ described the degree of departure of the scores from symmetry.
❖
CLASSIFICATION OF SKEWNESS (according to the skewness
coefficient, Sk)

1. Positively Skewed Distribution → if Sk > 0; skewed to the right; a

distribution where the thin end tail of the graph goes to the right part of
the curve. This happens when most of the scores of the students are
below the mean. This means that the students who took the
examination did very poor. Most of the students got a very low score
and only few students got a high score. It also tells us only on the poor
performance of the test takers but not the reasons why the students did
poorly in the examination. Poor performance of the students could be
attributed to the ff: ineffective methods of teaching & instruction,
students’ unpreparedness to take the examination, test items are very
difficult, and there is no enough time to answer the test items.

2. Negatively Skewed Distribution → Sk < 0 ; or skewed to the left; a

distribution where the thin end tail of the graph goes to the left part of
the curve. This happens when most scores got by the students are
above the mean. This means that the students who took the
examination performed well. Most of the scores are high and there are
only few low scores. The shape of the score distribution indicates the
performance of the students but not the reason why most of the
students got high scores. The possible reasons why students got high
score are: the group of students are smart, there is enough time to
finish the examination
 9

• NORMAL DISTRIBUTION

If Sk = 0, the scores are normally distributed. The skewness of a score

distribution indicates only the performance of the students but not the reasons
about their performance.
❖ A special kind f symmetric distribution and it represents some
properties in Mathematics. It can be determined using the values of the
mean and standard deviation. It is also centered at the mean of the
variable and its variation will depend on the value of its standard
deviation. The smaller the value of the standard deviation, the steeper
the score distribution and less dispersed.

❖ PROPERTIES OF NORMAL DISTRIBUTION

1. the curve has a single peak, meaning the distribution is unimodal.

2. it is bell-shaped curve.
3. It is symmetrical to the mean.
4. The end tails of the curve can be extended indefinitely in both sides
and asymptotic to the horizontal line.
5. The shape of the curve will depend on the value of the mean and
standard deviation.
6. The total area under the curve is 1.0. Hence, the area of the curve in
each side of the mean is 0.5
7. The probability between two given points in the curve is equal to the
area between the two points.
 10

❖ CORRELATION – refers to the extent to which the distributions are linearly

related or associated between the two variables.

KINDS OF CORRELATION
1. Positive Correlation
High scored in distribution x are associated with high scores in
distribution y. Low scores in distribution x are associated with low scores in
distribution y. This means that the value of x increases the value of y
increases too or as the value of x decreases, the y values will also decrease.
The line that best fitted to the given points upward to the right and the slope
is positive.

2. Negative Correlation
High scores in distribution x are associated with low scores in
distribution y. Low scores in distribution x are associated with high scores in
distribution y. This means that as the values of x increase, the values of y
decrease or when the values of x decrease, the values of y increase. The line
that best fitted to the given points downward to the right and the slope of the
line is negative.

3. Zero Correlation
No association between scores in distribution x and scores in
distribution y. No single line can be drawn that best fitted to all points and no
discernable pattern can be formed.

V. END OF MODULE ASSESSMENT. Please wait for the upload link. Do not
pass on my email, unless otherwise instructed.

Answer the following (you may conduct a research on these):

1. What is the importance of the different measures of central tendency in
assessing the performance of the students in the classroom?
2. Describe the importance of the different measures of variability in
assessing the performance of the students.
3. Differentiate positively skewed distribution from negatively skewed
distribution in terms of students’ performance.

VI. REFERENCES
1. Gabuyo, Y.A. (2012). ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING I (Textbook and
Reviewer) (1st ed.). Rex Book Store Inc.
2. Calmorin, L. P. (2004). MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION (3rd ed). National
Bookstore.
3. Calmorin, L. P. (2011) ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING 1. Rex Book Store, Inc.
4. LET Reviewer
11