The Functions of Tests and Scales as Found in Recent Educational Literature

Abstract

The recent origin, the rapid development, and the extensive use of educational tests and scales, with indications on every hand that they will be more extensively used by all types of school people, make it fitting that we examine critically the functions which have been assigned to them. In collecting the various functions of tests and scales we examined three sets of sources: first, educational journals and magazines which are filled today with discussions of the uses or functions of tests and scales as conceived both by the school people in the field and by the research workers in our teacher-training institutions; second, recently appearing textbooks in the field of education; third, the statements of the authors who constructed the tests and scales. Most of the clerical work was done by Miss L. Alice Wilhite, a student in the School of Education, University of Missouri, and Mr. W. J. Saupe, an instructor and student in the same institution. In our examination of these sets of sources we were amazed at the number and variety of assigned functions. One examining these claims would doubtless come to the conclusion that tests and scales form the master-key that unlocks all doors in the educational mansion. We are happy, also, to do homage to the ingenuity of educational practitioners and writers. In fact so many and so varied were the attributed functions that we found it impossible to devise a scheme of classification under which we could subsume all of them. Our task was further complicated by the fact that it was often difficult to determine, by judgment based upon the author's statements, the category to which a given function should be assigned. In our search for a suitable scheme for classifying the func tions of tests and scales we tried the following ones: (a) generic functions; (b) functions based on the school officer 204