Republic of the Philippines

Bulacan State University

City of Malolos
Tel. No. (044) 919-7800 to 99 Local 1022
ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING 1
MODULE 8
UTILIZATION OF ASSESSMENT DATA
Examinations and tests are given for specific purposes. Whatever is the purpose for which
classroom measuring instruments are given, they are always intended either to measure some kind
of achievement and performance of students, or to evaluate their growth and development. Therefore,
after giving a test the teacher has to study and analyze the results of such test on the basis of the
purpose for which it is intended.
Classroom teachers usually deal with a large amount of data, usually in the form of test scores.
As more and more scores accumulate, it gets more and more difficult to make sense of the data. It
becomes more and more difficult to answer questions such as:
How many students are above average?
How many scored above the cut-off passing score?
Did most of the class do well on the test?
What is the highest or lowest score?
Keeping these questions in mind, it clearly shows how the different statistical measures could
be used by teachers in classifying or grouping students and for determining and interpreting the results
of the tests that are intended to measure student achievements.
Data are tabulated to introduce some order to the data and make them more interpretable.
Five methods of tabulating data are classification of scores in a master sheet, ranking, simple
frequency distribution, grouped frequency distribution and graphing.
7.1 CLASSIFICATION OF SCORES IN A MASTER SHEET
EX: Classify the following scores in Mathematics on a master sheet.
36 63 51 43 93
54 48 84 36 45
57 45 48 96 66
54 72 81 30 27
45 51 47 63 88
Procedure:
a. Subtract the ten’s digit of the lowest score from the ten’s digit of the highest score. Add 4,
a constant, to the difference. The sum is the number of horizontal lines. Of the data above,
the highest score is 93 and the lowest score is 27. 9-2 = 7 is the difference. Add 4 to 7
equals 11, the number of horizontal lines.
b. Draw the number of horizontal lines found in step a. Draw the vertical lines, thirteen
(constant) of them crossing the horizontal lines.
c. Start with “total” at the lowest cell of the first column at the left, followed by the ten’s digit of
the lowest score, writing ten’s digit consecutively upward to the ten’s digit of the highest
score: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
d. Write to the top “cells”, the units 0, 1, 2, 3, to 9 and “total” at the last top cell at the right.
e. Tally each score and enter each tally in the cell where the ten’s digit and the unit’s digit
intersect. Check out every score tallied so as to prevent the possibility of omission and/or
duplication. Write each fifth tally across the proceeding four.
f. Add the tallies horizontally, then vertically. The horizontal and vertical totals must be equal.

7.2 RANKING OF SCORES

EX: Below is an example of ranking test scores. The test scores are as follows:
32 35 29 41 28 26 39 27 35 30
35 32 40 29 39 37 28 29 37 41
Procedure:
a. Under the column Score, arrange the scores from highest to lowest. Write a score as many
times as it occurs. If the number of cases is 31 or more, use a master sheet.
b. Under the column Serial No., number the scores consecutively from 1 for the highest score
and so on down to the lowest score. The number of the last score is the same as the total
of the number of cases.
c. Under the column Rank, assign the ranks. Scores appearing once have their serial numbers
as their ranks. Scores appearing more than once have the average of their serial numbers
as their ranks. Identical scores have the same ranks.
__________________________________________________________
SCORE SERIAL NO. RANK
__________________________________________________________
41 1 1.5
41 2 1.5
40 3 3
39 4 4.5
39 5 4.5
37 6 6.5
37 7 6.5
35 8 9
35 9 9
35 10 9
32 11 11.5
32 12 11.5
30 13 13
29 14 15
8
 29 15 15
29 16 15
28 17 17.5
28 18 17.5
27 19 19
26 20 20

7.3 SIMPLE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

Usually, for classroom purpose, a simple frequency distribution is not practical and is
unpopular. Unless your tests yield a narrow spread of scores, simple frequency distribution tend to
be so lengthy that it is difficult to make sense of the data. Seldom will a simple frequency distribution
prove useful in the average classroom.
EX:
X (score) f (frequency)
41 2
40 1
39 1
38 0
37 2
36 0
35 3
34 0
33 0
32 2
31 0
30 1
29 3
28 2
27 1

7.4 THE GROUPED FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

STEPS:
1. Determine the range of the scores by getting the difference between the highest score and
the lowest score.
R=H–L R = 41 – 26 = 15
2. Determine the appropriate number of intervals. The number of intervals or categories
used in grouped frequency distribution is somewhat flexible.
3. Divide the range by the number of intervals you decide to use. This will give you i, the
interval width.
i= R i = 15 =3
no. of intervals 5
4. Construct the interval column making sure that the lowest score in each interval, called the
lower limit (LL), is a multiple of the interval width (i). The upper limit of each interval (UL) is
one point less than the lower limit of the next interval.
Lower Limit Upper Limit
42 44
39 41 Highest score captured
36 38
9
 33 35
30 32
27 29
24 26 Lowest score captured
21 23
18 20
15 17
12 14
9 11
6 8
3 5
5. Construct the f column, or frequency column by tallying the number of scores that are
captured by each interval.
Intervals Tally f
39-41 llll 5
36-38 ll 2
33-35 lll 3
30-32 lll 3
27-29 llll –l 6
24-26 l 1
7.5 GRAPHING
Graphs, and graphical representations can be meaningful and especially applicable to
statistics. In any case, a graph will almost always clarify or simplify the information presented in a
grouped frequency distribution. There are three graphs that are applicable to these.
Data from grouped frequency distributions may be graphically represented by histograms or
frequency polygons and smooth curves.

7.5.1 THE BAR GRAPH OR HISTOGRAM

Histograms or bar graphs, use columns of varying height to represent the frequencies in each
interval.
The interpretation of bar graphs is straightforward. The higher the column, the greater the
number of scores falling in that interval. The lower the column, the fewer the number of scores falling
in that interval.

f
7
6
5
4
3
2

0 24-26 27-29 30-32 33-35 36-38 39-41

10
7.5.2 THE FREQUENCY POLYGON
Frequency polygons use straight lines to connect the midpoints of each interval, which vary in
height depending on the frequency of scores in the interval.
Technically, a frequency polygon is best used for graphically representing what are called
continuous data, such as test scores. Continuous data usually represent entities that can be
expressed as fractions or parts of whole numbers, for example, achievement test scores and grade
point averages.
The only difference of a frequency polygon with that of the histogram is the use of the midpoint
in constructing it.
Intervals f Midpoint
39-41 5 40
36-38 2 37
33-35 3 34
30-32 3 31
27-29 6 28
24-26 1 25

4
3
2
1

0 25 28 31 34 37 40

7.5.3 THE SMOOTH CURVE

The smooth curve is not really an appropriate way to represent data from grouped
frequency distribution, since an accurate smooth curve requires that advanced mathematical
calculations be computed. Nevertheless, a smooth curve will be of use as a general
representation of group of scores.
SYMMETRICAL AND ASSYMMETRICAL DISTRIBUTIONS
These are the two major types of distribution.

11
VARIATIONS OF SYMMETRICAL DISTRIBUTIONS

peaked flattened somewhere in between

VARIATIONS OF ASSYMMETRICAL DISTRIBUTIONS

positively skewed negatively skewed

7.6 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Central tendency and variability are two of the most important concepts that apply to different
kinds of statistical data. The measures of central tendency are:

1. the mean,
2. the median, and
3. the mode.
They are values found near the center of an entire distribution of scores when arranged in
order of size. They are tools used to:
1. compare the mean achievement of two or more groups,
2. interpret any score in relation to the central score, and
3. locate where an individual belongs within a group.

7.6.1 THE MEAN:

The mean is nothing more than the average of scores or measures.
CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Stability – since each scores contributes its appropriate share in computing the mean.
2. It is the best understood and most widely used measure of central tendency.
3. It is more commonly used in higher statistical data than either the median or the mode.

A. LONG METHOD OF COMPUTING THE MEAN

X = ∑X Average = Sum of all the scores
N Total number of scores

12
B. COMPUTING THE MEAN WITH THE USE OF CLASS DEVIATION METHOD
S.D. f
91-97 2
84-90 2
77-83 1
70-76 1
63-69 3
56-62 1
49-55 4
42-48 7
35-41 2
28-34 1
21-27 1
N = 25

7.6.2 THE MEDIAN

The median is the point or score at the mid-point of the distribution of scores arranged from
highest to lowest. It is also the middle most score in an ordered distribution of scores and is
considered to be the 50th percentile.
CHARACTERISTICS:
1. It is the point which divide a scale into two equal parts or which divides a group into two
sub-groups based on ability or achievement.
2. The median is used with the quartile deviation in dividing a group of pupils into 4
homogenous groups.
3. The most exact measure of central tendency.
4. The value of the median depends on the number of courses, not much on the magnitude
of the scores.

COMPUTING THE MEDIAN:

S.D. f
91-97 2
84-90 2
77-83 1
70-76 1
63-69 3
56-62 1
49-55 4
42-48 7
35-41 2
28-34 1
21-27 1
N = 25

13
7.6.3 THE MODE
The mode is the score having the greatest frequency. It is considered the poorest measure of
central tendency.

A. THE ROUGH MODE – is the most frequent score in an ordered score distribution.
FINDING THE ROUGH MODE:
S.D. f
55-59 3
50-54 3
45-49 10
40-44 4
35-39 4
30-34 3
25-29 3
20-24 4

B. THE CRUDE MODE – with the use of the Pearson formula.

Mo = 3 Md - 2 X

14
 LEARNING EXERCISES

1. From the given set of scores, make the appropriate step distribution.

48 32 35 28 20 25 28
36 38 41 35 30 15 16
19 18 33 34 13 15 36
46 44 41 38 39 19 29
16 44 40 43 48 46 47
43 39 31 29 28 42 40
45 39 31 28 29 18 19
12

2. Compute for the Mean, Median and Mode of the following step distribution.

S.D. f
120-122 2
117-119 2
114-116 2
111-113 4
108-110 5
105-107 9
102-104 6
99-101 3
96-98 4
93-95 2
90-92 1

15