academic achievement tests

n. Tests designed to measure knowledge acquisition after a specific course of study. Because the goal of academic achievement tests is to determine whether or not students have gained the knowledge targeted by a specific course of instruction, content validity is the primary focus. Academic achievement tests are valid when the items selected for the test adequately represent the complete subject domain. For example, an academic achievement test in math may be concerned with students’ understanding of basic mathematical calculations; therefore to sample the content domain completely, it is important to include questions targeting addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. While there are standardized academic achievement tests (such as the Stanford Achievement Test or the Metropolitan Achievement Test), most academic achievement tests are nonstandard- ized measures developed explicitly for a class, topic, or training module (such as most classroom tests).          - BJM