Matthew Wilder 14.2

14.2 Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion refereneced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there disadvantages?

I think that there are distinct advantages to both assessment types, but the norm-referenced assessment also has a definite disadvantage, as well.

Teachers in the classroom tend to construct various forms of criterion-referenced assessments to determine who has mastered what concepts, and to what degree. Criterion-referenced assessment tends to be what we think of when we hear "Exam next Friday" or "Quiz tomorrow morning over tonight's reading". The focus of this type of reference assessment is that the individual student is aware of exactly what he or she learned from a given lesson. Teachers can create these assessments by following a pre-determined standard established by the school, school system, state, or Federal government agency.

In contrast, norm-referenced assessments are used to demonstrate a student's degree of knowledge on a wide range of issues, relative to their peers. Typically, norm-referenced assessments are commonly standardized and created professional test creators, with the singular purpose of stratifying their data to rank the students who take the exam. Famous entry exams such as the ACT, SAT, GRE, and LSAT are all exams of this type of assessment. It can be extremely helpful for institutions to classify students based on their knowledge and test taking skills. These assessments do have their disadvantages, however. Scores will not indicate with any particular certainty, whether or not, a student has learned material. It is merely a ranking.