Home | Clinical Café Archive | July 2005

Scoring Nuances of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language
Part 3: Zero Scores

Clinical Café By Kathy Swiney, CCC-SLP, BRS-FD

July 2005 Clinical Café
By Kathy Swiney, CCC-SLP, BRS-FD

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Accurate raw scores are the foundation for obtaining meaningful test results. Without adherence to the standardized administration procedures, reliable standard scores cannot be obtained. Precision in administration and interpretation of standardized tests allows evaluators to compare the skills of one specific examinee to those of participants of the same age in the normative sample. Understanding zero raw scores is one important aspect in achieving accuracy in scoring and interpretation on the CASL. Because of their unique nature, zero raw scores can result in either a standard score or no score at all. This article has been prepared to help clarify when each of these situations occurs.

Zero Scores:

You will inevitably have examinees who obtain raw scores of "0" on one or more of the CASL tests. Zero scores are treated differently than other raw scores:

• depending on how they were obtained
• in the way they are interpreted
• in the method used to calculate index scores.

Understanding these unique properties actually starts with the administration of the examples preceding each CASL test.

Role of Examples in the Administration of CASL tests:

Proper administration of the examples is essential for scoring accuracy. Examples are provided so the examinee has an opportunity to understand the task required on each test. The examiner can administer the examples for younger children if there is reason to believe an examinee will have difficulty with the examples at his or her age-level (see Examiner's Manual p. 73). Examples may also be repeated (see EM p. 72). Specific procedures for administration of the examples are provided in the Test Books on the pages immediately following the tab for each test. These instructions, like all other administration procedures, should be followed exactly.

Responses obtained on the examples play a very important role. They determine whether testing begins at the age-appropriate Start Item or at Item 1. The examiner uses the accuracy of an examinee's responses on the examples to make this determination. Most tests provide two examples for each of one or two age ranges. The exceptions are Paragraph Comprehension which provides one example paragraph, Sentence Comprehension which provides one example with two parts (Part A and Part B), and Grammaticality Judgment which provides one set of three examples for all examinees.

For the majority of tests, the following procedures apply.

First Example for age range:
Correct response - Examiner continues with the second example for the age range.

Incorrect or no response—Examiner repeats the example, models the correct response, and continues to the second example.

Second Example for age range:
Correct response - Examiner continues testing with the administration of the actual test items starting with the age-appropriate Start Item.

Incorrect or NR—Examiner repeats the example, models the correct response, and continues with the administration of the actual test items starting with Item 1, not the age-level Start Item.

(See specific instructions in the Test Books for Paragraph Comprehension, Sentence Comprehension, and Grammaticality Judgment.)

When a "zero" score yields a standard score:

Standard scores are a representation of how far from average an examinee's score falls. One or more participants in the standardization sample actually scored "0" and, therefore, that score is a certain distance from average given the examinee's age level peers. In other words, any raw score can translate to a standard score in the distribution of scores. If the examinee understood the task required on the test, presented his or her best effort, and still obtained a raw score of zero, the standard score obtained should be considered as valid as any of the others for this test.

An example of this situation can occur when the examinee responds correctly to the examples and the answers on the scored items, while incorrect, at least indicate the examinee understands the task required. The following scenario is an example of just such an occurrence.

Scenario A - Zero score that yields a standard score Student A, aged 11-1, is taking the Grammatical Morphemes test. The examiner administers Examples 3 and 4 which Student A answers correctly. The examiner proceeds to administer Item10, the age-appropriate Start Item. Student A responds incorrectly to Item 10. Following an incorrect response to the Start Item, the examiner administers test items in reverse order all the way to Item 1 in an attempt to obtain a basal of three consecutive scores of 1. The student does not answer any of the items correctly. On items administered, the examinee provides responses that, while incorrect, indicate she understands the task required. She obtains a raw score of "0." In this case, the standard score of 50 applies. NOTE: When using the CASL ASSIST scoring program, zero scores obtained in this manner can be used in the calculations for all indexes. Enter "0" in the field for the test(s) on the ASSIST.

When a zero score does not yield a standard score:

There are instances in which a zero raw score cannot be used to derive a standard score. This situation occurs when an examinee starts at Item 1, which can happen under a number of conditions:

• the examinee's age-level Start Item on a test is Item 1
• the examiner believes a particular examinee will have difficulty with the age-appropriate Start Item and determines that the appropriate Start Item should be Item 1
• the examinee responds incorrectly to the examples (see EM p.73)

When any of these situations occurs and the examinee provides incorrect responses to all of the example items administered, as well as to Items 1, 2 and 3, testing is discontinued and no standard score can be obtained. An example of this scenario follows.

Scenario B - Zero score does not yield a standard score Student B, aged 10-3, is taking the Antonyms test. Based on the student’s age, the examiner administers Example 3 and Example 4. Student B responds incorrectly to both examples. The examiner adheres to the instructions on the tab for this test in Test Book 1. Testing continues from Record Form 2 with Item 1 rather than the age-level start item. Student B cannot respond correctly to Item 1, Item 2 or Item 3. The examiner must conclude that this examinee does not understand the concept of the test. Testing is discontinued (see EM p. 72). "No normative information can be derived" (EM p. 73), and no standard score can be obtained. If the test is a Core Test, a Core Composite cannot be obtained. If this situation occurs on one of the tests that make up a Category Index (Lexical/Semantic, Syntactic, or Supralinguistic), a standard score for the category index cannot be obtained. NOTE: When using the CASL ASSIST scoring program, zero scores obtained in this manner should not be used in the calculations. Do not enter any score in the field for this test on the ASSIST. The program will calculate all other scores accordingly.

I don't know about you, but I don't think I ever considered how much information can be found in "0"!

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