NORM REFERENCED AND CRITERION REFERENCED GRADING SYSTEM

Norm-Referenced Systems

Definition
 In norm-referenced systems students are evaluated in relationship to one another (e.g.,
the top 10% of students receive an A, the next 30% a B, etc.). This grading system rests
on the assumption that the level of student performance will not vary much from class
to class. In this system the instructor usually determines the percentage of students
assigned each grade, although this percentage may be determined (or at least
influenced) by departmental expectations and policy.
 Measures a student’s performance in comparison to the performance of same-age
students on the same assessment. Normative scoring is based on a bell curve, meaning
only half of those tested can score above the 50th percentile.
 Norm-referenced grading refers to a grading system wherein a student’s grade is placed
in relation to the performance of a group.

Advantages

 Norm-referenced systems are very easy to use.

 They work well in situations requiring rigid differentiation among students where,
for example, program size restrictions may limit the number of students advancing
to higher level courses.
 They are generally appropriate in large courses that do not encourage cooperation
among students but generally stress individual achievement.
 Using the norm-referenced assessments to benchmark or to pretest and post-test is
useful for seeing gains a student has made over the duration of a full academic year.
But because performance is represented in normative scores, gains shown are
relative to those of same-age peers.

Disadvantages

 One objection to norm-referenced systems is that an individual's grade is

determined not only by his/her achievements, but also by the achievements of
others. This may be true in a large non-selective lecture class, where we can be fairly
confident that the class is representative of the student population; but in small
classes (under 40) the group may not be a representative sample. One student may
get an A in a low-achieving section while a fellow student with the same score in a
higher-achieving section gets a B.
 A second objection to norm-referenced grading is that it promotes competition
rather than cooperation. When students are pitted against each other for the few As
to be given out, they're less likely to be helpful to each other.
 A more subtle problem with norm-referenced grading is that a strict
correspondence between the evaluation methods used and the course instructional
goals is not necessary to yield the required grade distribution. The specific learning
 objectives of norm-referenced classes are often kept hidden, in part out of concern
that instruction not “give away” the test or the teacher’s priorities, since this might
tend to skew the curve.
Uses and Examples
 Consider the following two sets of scores in an English 1 class for two sections of ten
students each:
A = { 30, 40,50, 55, 60, 65,70,75,80, 85}
B = { 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 90, 95, 100}
In the first class, the student who got a raw score of 75 would get a grade of
80% while in the second class, the same grade of 80% would correspond to a raw
score of 90.
 Pediatric Growth Charts: Growth charts are commonly used by pediatricians to track
a child’s growth as compared to the growth of other children of the same age.
Growth charts compare a child’s height, weight, and body mass index to the height,
weight, and body mass index of same-age and same-gender children.
 The SAT: A classic example of a norm-referenced test, the SAT is designed to
determine one high school student’s abilities as compared to the abilities of other
high school students.
 Uses in Special Education:
• Initially identifying students who may be eligible for special services
• Supporting ongoing eligibility for special services
• Benchmarking or pretesting and post testing

Possible modification
 When using a norm-referenced system in a small class, the allocation of grades can
be modified according to the caliber of students in the class.
 Use an anchor:
"If instructors have taught a class several times and have used the same or an
equivalent exam, then the distribution of test scores accumulated over many classes
can serve as the anchor. The present class is compared with this cumulative
distribution to judge the ability level of the group and the appropriate allocation of
grades. Anchoring also works well in multi-section courses where the same text,
same syllabus, and same examinations are used. The common examination can be
used to reveal whether and how the class groups differ in achievement and the
grade in the individual sections can be adjusted accordingly... If an instructor is
teaching a class for the first time and has no other scores for comparison, a relevant
and well-constructed teacher-made pretest may be used as an anchor." (Jacobs and
Chase in Developing and Using Tests Effectively: A Guide for Faculty, 1992)
Criterion- Referenced Systems

Definition
 Measures a student’s performance based on mastery of a specific set of skills. It
measures what the student knows and doesn’t know at the time of assessment. The
student’s performance is NOT compared to other students’ performance on the same
assessment.
 Criterion referenced grades are based on measuring a student against a level of
performance, not measuring one student against another student. This means looking at
how a student is performing today compared to how the student performed the day
before that.
 Criterion referenced means setting a defined target for students to hit, and then
measuring their progress according to how close they come to hitting the target. Criteria
and targets provide “stable and clear points of reference.” (Wiggins, 1994).
 In criterion-referenced systems students are evaluated against an absolute scale (e.g.
95-100 = A, 88-94 = B, etc.). Normally the criteria are a set number of points or a
percentage of the total. Since the standard is absolute, it is possible that all students
could get As or all students could get Ds.
 Criterion-referenced grading systems are based on a fixed criterion measure. There is a
fixed target and the students must achieve that target in order to obtain a passing grade
in a course regardless of how the other students in the class perform. The scale does not
change regardless of the quality, or lack thereof, of the students.

Advantages

 In a criterion-referenced grading system, students can help a fellow student in

group work without necessarily worrying about lowering his grade in that course.
 An ideal system to use in collaborative group work.
 Using the criterion-referenced assessments for ongoing assessment throughout the
academic year allows a comparison of a student’s current skill mastery to his/her
skill mastery at previous points in the year. Because the skill sequences are broken
down into gradual steps along the skill continuum, progress can be measured in very
small increments.
 Using criterion referenced grading contributes to consistency and fairness in
grading.
 Students are not competing with each other and are thus more likely to actively
help each other learn. A student's grade is not influenced by the caliber of the class.

Disadvantages

 It is difficult to set reasonable criteria for the students without a fair amount of
teaching experience. Most experienced faculty set these criteria based on their
knowledge of how students usually perform (thus making it fairly similar to the
norm referenced system).
 Practices that may inhibit learning:
o Not providing objectives or targets
 o Grading students against a norm-referenced curve
o Not using rubrics for scoring student work
o Grading by comparing students to each other
Uses and Examples
 In a class of 100 students using the table below, no one might get a grade of
excellent if no one scores 98 above or 85 above depending on the criterion used.
There is no fixed percentage of students who are expected to get the various grades
in the criterion-referenced grading system.
 Driving Tests: Driving tests are designed to determine if a driver has mastered the
skills required to drive on the road safely. Driving tests do not rank drivers against
other drivers. All drivers can get 100% if they master the skills required.
 End-of-unit exams in school: These exams are designed to determine whether
students have mastered the material presented in a specific unit. Each student’s
performance is measured based on the material presented (what the student knows
and what the student doesn’t know). Again, all students can get 100% if they have
fully mastered the material.
 Uses in Special Education:
o Pinpointing a student’s present level of performance (PLOP)
o Writing goals and objectives for an IEP
o Planning individualized instruction
o Monitoring incremental progress
Possible modification
 Effective Best Practices for Criterion Referenced Grading:
o Use rubrics and clear targets
o Provide students with the learning objectives/goals ahead of time
o Provide exemplars or anchor papers for students to view achievement levels
o Grade students against mastery of the objectives
 Instructors sometimes choose to maintain some flexibility in their criteria by telling
the class in advance that the criteria may be lowered if it seems appropriate, e.g.,
the 95% cut off for an A may be lowered to 93%. This way if a first exam was more
difficult for students than the instructor imagined, s/he can lower the grading
criteria rather than trying to compensate for the difficulty of the first exam with an
easy second exam. Raising the criteria because too many students achieved As,
however, is never advisable.
 Another way of doing criterion-referenced grading is by listing objectives and
assigning grades based on the extent the student achieved the class objectives (e.g.,
A = Student has achieved all major and minor objectives of the course. B = Student
has achieved all major objectives and several minor objectives, etc.).
 The criterion should not be based on only one teacher’s opinion or standard. It
should be collaboratively arrived at. A group of teachers teaching the same subject
must set the criterion together.
 Once the criterion is established, it must be made public and open to public scrutiny
so that it does not become arbitrary and subject to the whim and caprices of the
teacher.