Page 158 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes Grade norms are very important for teachers. They can analyze the performance and ability
of students on their basis, and can ascertain the position of a certain child in the class.

Standard score norms are also expressed by other norms in addition to Sigma score
norms, such as Z score, t-score, Sten-score, Stanine-score etc.

Limitations
(a) The variance in grade norms is not very explicit.
(b) The rate of educational achievement, intelligence development and other variables is not
uniform as per the grade.

(c) Grade norms, like age norms, are not uniform.
(d) These norms can be used only in formal educational institutions.
(e) If students of the same age group have to compared, then grade norms do not assist us.
For example, we can compare 7-year-old Punit with other boys aged 8, 9 or 10 years, but
not with many other as old as Punit. In such a situation, students are compared with one
another on the basis of percentile norms.
3. Percentile Norms : By percentile norms in a test is meant the different percentiles obtained
by a large group of students. In other words, percentile norms are those scores, the number
of students obtaining scores below than that is equal to the percentage of such students. For
example, 75th percentile norm tells that 75% students have scored below this score, and
only 25% students have obtained scores above it. In calculating percentile norm, a candidate
is compared with the group of which he is a member. By percentile scores is meant the
grade of a candidate in percentiles. Supposing 100 individuals are taking part in a race. One
of them runs the fastest and stands first. He is better than 99 individuals, so his percentile
value is 99. The individual standing second in the race is better than 98 individuals, so his
percentile position is 98th. The distance between the first and second individuals does not
influence their percentile positions. The individual running last is followed by no other
individual, so his percentile position will be 0. In the same way, under educational situations,
when several students of the same or different schools are studied, it is quite convenient
and useful to transform their sequences into percentile ranks. In ordinary words, percentile
is the point on the scale below which a fixed percentage of the distribution falls.
In order to know percentile value, a test is administered on a large group, and different
percentile values are calculated on the basis of scores obtained by students. These percentile
values are percentile norms. Because, it is possible to use them on all individuals of the
common group under all circumstances, so it can be said about them that percentile norms
provide a basis for interpreting the score of an individual in terms of his standing in some
particular group.
In calculating percentile and percentile rank, suppose a test was administered on a large
group, and M = 100, S.D. = 1, then different percentiles will be as follows :
On the above basis, if a candidate obtains 100 marks in the test, then his percentile rank will
be 50 and his performance level will be considered as average.
Merits
(a) They can be analyzed easily.
(b) It is not necessary to administer the test on a sample representative group, as is done in
other tests. Therefore, no hypothesis has to be formulated for these norms. So, these are
used widely.

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