Developing standards is just one aspect of creating a system that will provide our youth an education that will allow them to compete on the world stage.  To do this, we need to develop standards that spell out specific levels of measurable goals in a result-oriented manner using benchmarks determine level performance. The process for creating the standards should include comparisons with other countries standards or requirements to insure our youths ability to compete. These standards should be used to create curricula and criterion-referenced testing systems.

Criterion-referenced testing is one of two basic test formats- norm-referenced andcriterion-referenced testing.  Theterms norm-referenced and criterion-referenced have to do with how test scoresare interpreted.  Norm-referencedtests are those associated with the familiar bell-shaped curve, which isreferred to in the phrase “grading on a curve.”  When using norm-referenced testing, grades or scores arebased on a comparison of the test-takers to one another, while making sure thatthe target group is well defined, and the questions are not bias to any onetest-taking group.  So, forexample, suppose I was taking a 100-point test that alone would determinewhether I would be accepted into a prestigious university.  I might be excited to learn that I havereceived a score of 95 percent (i.e., out of 100 answers were correct).  But if acceptance into the universitywere based on a norm-referenced decision that only the top 10 percent of thestudents would be accepted, then this score alone will not tell me whether I’llbe accepted.  If 10 percent or moreof the students who took the exam scored 96 percent or better on the test, thenin comparison with those students, I would not be admitted to the university.

Let’s take a different exaggerated outcome to clarify theconcept of norm referencing and its use to determine a schools performance andteacher salary.  Suppose the meanscore for your school was 86 percent (The mathematical average of the students’scores at your school).  Whilethere is room for improvement, the mean score would surely be acceptable inmost situations, but not necessarily, in a strictly norm-referencedcontext.  Again, the decision woulddepend on the performance of the students of the other schools.  So if by chance your school’s 86 percentmean score turned out to be on the lower end of the bell curve with most otherschools’ mean scores being in the mid to high nineties, then your school’s 86percent mean score would not even be in the middle of the bell curve.  If your school’s extra funding andteachers salary was dependent on the school’s mean score using norm referencing,your school would not have received extra funding and its teachers would nothave been given a raise, even though their students performed well.

Norm-referenced tests often utilize score reports that areinterpreted in terms of percentiles. Percentiles are not the same as percentages or percents.  A percentile is a particular place inthe distribution of many scores on a norm-referenced test.  So if your score report tells you thatyou scored at the ninety-sixth percentile, this means only that you scoredbetter than 96 percent of the people who took the test.  However, the percentile figure itselfdoesn’t tell you what your actual score was (i.e., being at the ninety-sixthpercentile figure itself doesn’t necessarily mean that you got 96 percent of theitems right, and vice versa).  Thisis a simple explanation, I have not described how scores on the bell curve aredetermined but the explanation is accurate.

 Norm-referenced test is a common testing approach, but doesit give the information teacher need about their students.  I think you’ll find that the answer isno.  Norm referenced scores do nottell you how many questions a student scored correctly.  It doesn’t tell you what categories thestudent does well in.  It does notgive you an idea of what goals or objectives the student has shown success. Sowhat is the alternative:  Let’sconsider criterion-referenced testing.   If norm-reference testing means that a score isinterpreted against other test-takers’ scores, then what does criterion-referencedtesting mean?  You have probablydiscerned that in criterion-referenced testing, a given score is interpretedrelative to pre-set goal or objective (the criterion), rather than to theperformances of other test-takers. Criterion referenced tests also have to define the target population andmake sure the questions are not bias to any given sub-group of test-takers.

A clear example of criterion-referenced test is theCalifornia driver’s license test. This exam involves both a paper-pencil test about traffic laws and abehind-the-wheel test of actual driving skills.  A passing score level has been pre-set by the CaliforniaDepartment of Motor Vehicles, based on professional judgments regarding theknowledge and skill required to be a safe driver.   A set grading system has been established and gradershave gone through a training system to make sure that each grader uses the samecriteria in the same way.  Usingthe criterion-referencing score interpretation system, a test-taker’sperformance is judged against the criterion  -- not against the performance of other test-takers.

For years, testing (especially in the United States) hasbeen dominated by the norm-referenced approach to interpret scores.  In my opinion, the norm-referencedapproach is seldom the appropriate way of determining students’ abilities andthe information gathered does not give parents, teachers, administrators orgovernment officials the information they need to determine if a student isperforming at a particular level, if a teaching is effective, and/or if aschool/school district produces students’ whose perform meet grade level.  

 Norm-referenced testing was developed as a selectiontool.  Thus, norm-referenced testscover a myriad of information within each subject or category area.  This grading system always have scoresthat are distributed evenly on the ‘bell curve.”  Since there is always an evenly distributed curve, there isalways scores at the top end, mid and bottom level.  In contrast Criterion-referenced tests are based onperformance demonstrated against preset performance goals and objectives, a setgrading process and set performance levels.  Thus, there is no need for evenly distributed scores.  We can have most scores within thepre-set performance criteria.

In order for us to determine how well our youth is performing against standrards set, we need to employ the correct type of test format. Additionally, the test scores should provide teaching staffs with specific information about their students.  This information  should then be used so that the teaching staff can customize the curricula to meet their specific student population's needs.