Testing and Evaluation: Measurement Quality and Test Order
Testing and Evaluation focuses on measurement quality and test administration. The exam asks whether a test is valid, reliable, objective, and sensitive enough to answer the question being asked.
Measurement concepts
- Validity: the test measures what it claims to measure for that population and purpose.
- Reliability: repeated measures produce consistent results. Objectivity is reliability across testers.
- Sensitivity: the test detects meaningful change; a change smaller than the typical error or minimal detectable change is not trustworthy.
Administration rules
- Standardize time of day, warm-up, equipment, surface, instructions, and tester.
- Test order: non-fatiguing measures first (height, weight, body composition, flexibility), then agility, power, strength, sprint, and endurance last.
- Allow familiarization, especially for skilled tests such as 1RM or vertical jump.
- 1RM protocol: progressive warm-up, 3-5 min rest between attempts, and a small number of attempts.
Worked example
An athlete jumps 60 cm; the team mean is 50 cm with an SD of 5 cm. z = (60 - 50) / 5 = 2.0. T-score = 50 + 10(2.0) = 70. A z of 2.0 corresponds to roughly the 97.7th percentile. The reasoning: convert the raw score to a standard score before comparing across tests with different units, then interpret the percentile in context.
Traps
Testing after a hard session; using a different tester or protocol at retest; skipping familiarization; comparing raw scores across different tests; reporting a change smaller than the test's error.