Basic issues in criterion-referenced measurement are addressed. In section II, issues involved in determining what a person does and can do are considered. A preliminary analysis of "can" is given which shows that there are several important senses of "can". In section III, results of an analysis of "ability" are…

A distinction is made between reliability of measurement and reliability of classification; the "criterion-referenced reliability coefficient" describes the former. Application of this coefficient to the probability distribution of possible scores for a single student yields a meaningful way to describe the reliability of a single score. (Author)

Since the primary purpose of classical testing is to rank order examinees consistently, the absolute value of the true score has been relatively unimportant. However, the major purpose of criterion referenced testing is to estimate the true capabilities of examinees to perform specific tasks. Hence, the problems of true score determination assume…

An important feature of recent large-scale performance assessments has been the reporting of pupil and school performance in terms of performance or proficiency categories. When an assessment uses such ordered categories as the primary means of reporting results, the natural way of reporting on the quality of the assessment is through the…