Principle
According to Grondlund (1986) there are principles of achievement testing provide a firm base for constructing and using classroom test as a positives force in teaching learning process; (1) Achievement test should measure clearly defined learning outcomes that ear in harmony with instructional objectives.
Achievement test measure the specific type of performance that students are expected to demonstrate at the end of learning experience. In order for the text to most useful these learning outcomes should be clearly defined and should faithfully reflect the instructional objectives of course. This procedure is such an important phase of achievement testing that a portion of the text chapter will devoted to a detailed description of how state measure learning outcomes. (2) Achievement tests should measure a representative sample of the learning task include in the instruction. Testing is always a matter of sampling; we can never ask all of the questions we would like ask in test. At the end of learning experienced, there may be hundreds of fact and term we exact student to know, but because of the time available for testing and other considerations, we can include only enough term measure a fraction of these fact. (3) Achievement test should include the type of test item that are most appropriate for measuring the desire learning outcomes. The learning outcomes for a course or unit of study specifies the types of performance we are to accept key to effective achievement testing is to select the most appropriate type of item and to construct it so carefully that elicits the desire response without being influences by irrelevant factors. (4) Achievement test should fit particular uses that will be made of the result. As we noted earlier achievement test may be used for a variety purpose. They may be used measure students’ a) entry behavior at the beginning of instruction (placement test), b) learning progress during instruction (formative test), c) learning difficulties and their sources during instruction (diagnostic test), and d) general achievement at the end of instruction (summative test). (5) Achievement test should be as reliable as possible and should then be interpreted with the caution. When the purpose of the testing is to describe which learning tasks each student can and cannot perform rather than to rank students in order to achievements, the range of the test score is relevant. In this situation its difficulty is determined by the difficulty to obtain a spread of scores. Since the traditional; estimated of the test reliability are based on score constructing reality, special problems are encountered when constructing reliable test that do not require score variability. Here we must depend more heavily on matching the test items as closely as possible to the specific learning task, using a sufficient number of items for each learning task and writing items that clearly all forth the desire behavior. (6) Achievement test should improve students’ learning. Earlier we pointed out that achievement test can aid in instructional decision, can directly influence the students’ learning and can provide information concerning teaching effectiveness.
In section we have emphasized those principles of achievement testing that should enchance its value as a learning device, in summary, achievement test will have the greatest positive influence on learning when they faithfully reflect the instructional objective, when they measure and adequate sample of intended learning outcomes, when they include item type most appropriate for the learning outcomes, when they adapted to the particular uses to be made of the result, and when they are designed to yield reliable result.
Function
Nofrianti in Ubaidillah (2011) states that in education world, the success of teaching process usually marked by students’ achievement that is gotten by students. Students’ achievement has some function. They are explained as bellow.
- Students’ achievement as quality indicator and knowledge quantity that have been mastered by the students.
- Students’ achievement as satisfied symbol
- Students’ achievement as information material and innovation in education.
- Students’ achievement as an intern and ex-tern indicator from institution of educational.
- Students’ achievement can be indicator for students’ intelligence.
Based on the function of students’ achievement above, it is proven that students’ achievement is very important because it is not only as the success indicator in the particular subject, but it is also as feedback for teacher in teaching learning process.