Page 198 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes Self Assessment

1. Fill in the blanks :
(i) Norm Referenced Test determines a student’s placement on a ______.
(ii) The major reason for using a Norm Referenced Test is to Classify ______.
(iii) Most achievement NRTs are ______ test.
(iv) Norm Referenced Test can lower ______.

15.7 Summary

• This type of test determines a student’s placement on a normal distribution curve. Students
compete against each other on this type of assessment.
• The major reason for using a norm-referenced tests (NRT) is to classify students. NRTs are
designed to highlight achievement differences between and among students to produce a
dependable rank order of students across a continuum of achievement from high achievers
to low achievers.
• California Achievement Test the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Riverside), and the Metropolitan
Achievement Test (Psychological Corporation) are normed using a national sample of
students. Because norming a test is such an elaborate and expensive process, the norms are
typically used by test publishers for years.
• Norm-referenced tests (NRTs) compare a person’s score against the scores of a group of
people who have already taken the same exam, called the “norming group.”
• Most achievement NRTs are multiple-choice tests.
• NRTs are designed to “rank-order” test takers -- that is, to compare students’ scores.
• To make comparing easier, testmakers create exams in which the results end up looking at
least somewhat like a bell-shaped curve.
• Scores are usually reported as percentile ranks.
• One more question right or wrong can cause a big change in the student’s score.
• In making an NRT, it is often more important to choose questions that sort people along the
curve than it is to make sure that the content covered by the test is adequate.
• Tests can be biased.

• Commercial, national, norm-referenced “achievement” tests include.
• The items on the test are only a sample of the whole subject area.
• All tests have “measurement error.”
• There are many other possible causes of measurement error.
• Sub-scores on tests are even less precise.
• Scores for young children are much less reliable than for older students.
• Teaching to the test explains why scores usually go down when a new test is used.
• To compare students, it is often easiest to use a norm-referenced test because they were
created to rank test-takers.
• NRT’s are a quick snapshot of some of the things most people expect students to learn.
• Any one test can only measure a limited part of a subject area or a limited range of important
human abilities.

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