TYPES OF TESTS – CRITERION REFERENCED, NORM REFERENCED, HYBRIDS,
CBM, CBA AND WHAT IS A TEACHER TO DO
Your text and the other content in this class addresses the importance of carefully
determining why you want to assess a child and what you want to do with the test
results. If you want to show relative standing, then you are going to use a formal norm
referenced test. In these tests, you are comparing the child’s performance to his or her
age or grade mates. These tests won’t show a great deal about the specific skills of the
child but rather give you some information about the child’s relative level of achievement
as compared to other similar learners.
In the other hand, criterion referenced tests can be formal or informal tests will show
you the degree to which a child has learned a specific skill. These tests are a little more
curriculum specific but they sometimes can only provide general information about
specific skill development. If the test is developed in relation to the specific curriculum to
which the child will be exposed, then the assessment information will be very child
specific. But, these tests may be developed by publishers who have to market their
tests to states and school districts who have differing curricula. In these cases, the test
scores will be instructionally helpful but may not be as specific as the teacher needs or
wants. But, these tests will not show you anything about the relative standing of the
child.
There is another type of test that most assessment experts have not adequately named.
