Lindsay Dodson XXXXXXXXXX:35pm Dec 3 at 7:35pm Criterion-referenced tests focus on the specific tasks themselves while the norm focuses on the performance of “typical” people. “Criterion-referenced...

Lindsay Dodson

Criterion-referenced tests focus on the specific tasks themselves while the norm focuses on the performance of “typical” people. “Criterion-referenced tests relate to a carefully defined domain of content, they focus on the achievement of specific behavioral objectives, and the results are often (but not necessarily) used for mastery judgments.”(Thorndike, 2009) There are many ways to conduct a test like this multiple-choice or even open-ended questions. There is always the person who is conducting the test to understand the performance of the person being tested. This is conducted across the board and allows a benchmark to be made for this specific section that the test is scoring on. They compare knowledge and skills against something that is already predetermined, not to be compared against others’.

An advantage of this assessment is each individual gets an in-depth analysis, to see their strengths and weaknesses. Another advantage of this test is that each test is administered individually, it doesn’t compare one to another- just fills in the blanks as far as education gaps.

While the Norm-referenced test evaluates employees against each other. Take for example a handful of employees doing the same job, sales representatives. This type of test is administered and a benchmark for the division is created to judge all new hires. What is the “norm” for the job description then the managers can build content to train the new hire to get to the expected benchmark. Creating an average understanding or viewpoint of the job. An example of this would be tests that are graded on a curve. I know I have experienced this personally in High School, especially super hard subjects, we were all so grateful for this! Or when kids are growing and they are in the 95% percentile for height, they are taller than 95% of the kids in their age range. An advantage of this is that they are looking less at the score and more about how many kids are in each group. Compare and contrast why the results are the way they are. Norm’s compared the information to others within the category.

References:

Thorndike, R. M., & Thorndike-Christ, T. M. (2009).

Measurement and evaluation in psychology and education

(8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Miranda Jennings

Thanks for your response! Can you think of any potential ethical concerns that might be raised with norm referenced tests? For example, what criticisms are there of the SAT and college admissions?