(TOPS-3E:NU) Test of Problem Solving - Elementary, Third Edition Normative Update

The TOPS-3E: NU focuses on a student’s linguistic ability to think and reason. Language competence is the verbal indicator of how a student’s language skills affect his or her ability to think, reason, problem solve, infer, classify, associate, predict, determine causes, sequence, and understand directions. The test focuses on a broad range of language-based thinking skills, including clarifying, analyzing, generating solutions, evaluating, and showing affective thinking.

While other tests may assess students’ thinking skills by tapping mathematical, spatial, or nonverbal potential, the TOPS-3E: NU measures discreet skills that form the foundation of language-based thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving ability.

Although the skills tested by the TOPS-3E: NU are necessary for developing social competence, it is not primarily a test of pragmatic or social language skills. Rather, it should be part of a battery of tests and observations used to assess pragmatic competence.

New features:

• Characteristics of the normative sample were stratified by age relative to region, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors.
• The Total Score was renamed the Problem Solving Index and calculated as a standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
• Each item on the test was evaluated using both conventional item analysis to choose “good” items and differential item analysis to find and eliminate potentially biased items.
• The index score was thoroughly examined for floor and ceiling effects.
• The test was subjected to diagnostic accuracy analyses, particularly rigorous techniques involving the computation of the receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (ROC/AUC) statistic.
• The Manual was reorganized and rewritten to provide more detailed information on the administration, interpretation, and statistical characteristics of the test.