Monday, February 11, 2013
Chelsea Carter 14.2
As with most teaching and assessment
strategies, there are pros and cons for both norm-referenced assessment and
criterion-referenced assessment. In criterion-referenced assessment, the
teacher has the freedom to choose the specific standard to address and how they
want to assess their students’ mastery of the subject matter. It also allows
for fast results and enables the teacher to address the needs of individual
students. However, criterion-referenced testing is only reliable if the test is
valid in assessing the criteria. Likewise, it does not always gauge overall
comprehension of the subject matter because it is specific-oriented.
Norm-referenced assessment is capable of providing data nationwide and allows
administrators to evaluate the overall comprehension of their students in
specific subjects. It allows the school to evaluate their successes and
failures in a national arena. However, the return rate of such assessments are
slow and do not always allow for teachers to address individual needs
after-the-fact. Instead, students move on to the next grade level without
working on specific areas. They are also unable to gauge an individual’s
progress because they are referenced to such a large data group.
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Chelsea, you brought up a point that I hadn't thought of. You said that the return rate of the norm- referenced assessments are slow and don't allow the time for teachers to adapt their instruction soon enough. I like that point because it does help the individual students, but as for teachers, there's not much room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteI agree entirely with your points on criterion-referenced assessments Chelsea. I found several disadvantages with norm-referenced assessments but none of them were the length of time it took for the information to make it back to the teacher. I think this is an excellent point as it doesn't really benefit the student who in all likelihood will move on to the next grade level without getting the attention or help they need.
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