Criterion-Referenced Assessment
Updated 2026-08-13
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Criterion-referenced assessment evaluates performance against an explicit standard or competence level, in contrast to norm-referenced assessment, which ranks candidates against one another. The core proposition is that the question worth answering is whether the learner can do the thing, not how they compare with the cohort, because the comparison says nothing about capability. The key qualification is that the value depends entirely on the standard's quality: vague or coarse criteria produce unreliable judgments, and reporting only pass or fail hides the specific gap that feedback should address.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Standard first: define the competence levels and the evidence for each before designing any test. - Item judging: assess each criterion separately and record met or not met. - Gap feedback: report which specific criteria were missed instead of the overall rank.
Anchor fast decisions
When the benchmark is fixed in advance, the result of the assessment is interpretable on its own: a pass means the person can perform the task to standard, regardless of who else was tested. Norm-referenced scoring cannot support that inference, because a high rank may still fall below competence and a low rank may still exceed it. Fixing the standard also makes results comparable across cohorts and over time.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterion-referenced_testverified
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