(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and
criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there
disadvantages?
By
ranking test takers based on comparing their performances to that of their
peers, norm referenced assessments such as IQ and developmental screening tests
can help educators and families detect possible special needs in students.
Other norm referenced assessments such as SAT, ACT, GRE help colleges make
admission/scholarship decisions. Another advantage of norm referenced
assessment is its practicality, or that it’s relatively easy for teachers/programs
to give (one test for everyone). A disadvantage of norm referenced assessment,
when applied as a grading system inside a classroom, is that it could
potentially discourage students from helping one another (group study/peer
tutoring, etc.) since others’ doing poorly is an advantage for one student under
the norm referenced grading system. It might also discourage high achieving
students from trying their best when their minimal efforts generate high rankings/grades.
Similarly, it might be frustrating for low achieving students and discourage
them from achieving their full potentials when their best efforts generate low
rankings/grades.
Criterion
referenced assessments report the students’ performances strictly based on
whether they correctly answered a set of questions or not. They are helpful
when educators need to find out whether or not the students have learned a
particular knowledge or skill in a curriculum. The teacher can then go back to
teaching the knowledge or skill when the students didn’t ace the test or move
on to teaching a new knowledge or skill when the students aced the test. Another
advantage of criterion referenced assessment is that it can be tailored to meet
the student’s special needs (assessments based on IEP goals), thus helping the
student in achieving his/her fullest potential. A disadvantage of criterion
referenced assessments is that they usually cannot be generalized beyond any
specific program or class. Another disadvantage is that criterion referenced
assessments that all students can succeed in could potentially be difficult and
time-consuming to develop (low practicality).
Xiao,
ReplyDeleteMany state standardized tests are both criterion referenced and norm referenced. Hopefully, we will soon be able to used standardized tests not only to track student progress in a broad sense as compared to other school districts, but to pinpoint specific things that students need to work on: like comma placement, or graphing linear equations. If you had to make a CRA measuring something small, like a student's ability to graph a linear equation, it might not be very time consuming. Hopefully, this new trend in standardized testing will take away some of the most time consuming parts of creating CRAs.
Erin Petersen
Xiao,
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting to read. I never really looked at the norm referenced assessments in that manner. It potenitally could discourage students from offering help or working collaboratively with their peers. It becomes almost like a competition to see who performs the best. It reminds me of students in my graduating class who determined who were the smartest students in the school based solely on their ACT scores. One test does not simply define academic achievement.