This Digest outlines five skills that will increase the likelihood that school counselors interpret test information correctly. These skills are: (1) understanding what norm-referenced tests are and what they do; (2) understanding the properties of a normal curve; (3) knowing the properties of common score types; (4) recognizing the difference…

Both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced interpretations of student, school, district, and state testing data can be improved by customizing the traditional norm-referenced test. Improvements that can be made include: (1) increasing the relevance of the test to the curriculum and (2) having greater confidence in the national comparative…