In the formation education that is carried out within the scope of undergraduate and non-thesis graduate programs within the same university, different criteria are used to evaluate students' success. In this study, classification accuracy of letter grades that are generated to evaluate students' success using relative and absolute criteria and…

Collaborative testing has been shown to improve performance but not always content retention. In this study, we investigated whether collaborative testing could improve both performance and content retention in a large, introductory biology course. Students were semirandomly divided into two groups based on their performances on exam 1. Each group…

Group projects are an established but debated pedagogical technique in higher education. The purpose of this study was to assess the appropriateness of combining individual and group marks in assessment. A mixed method design involving correlational and comparative elements was used. The sample included one cohort of students who completed a group…

At the end of secondary education in The Netherlands, students have to pass a final examination, consisting of an internal school-based assessment and an external national assessment. According to the Dutch inspectorate, to ensure the quality of final examinations, the discrepancy between both assessments must be less than 0.5 points (on a scale…

Although there is an ongoing debate about which achievement feedback is most useful, the majority of researchers agree that social comparisons and a focus on competition are inappropriate for students with learning disabilities and otherwise academically-challenged students. They are highly at-risk to be unfavorably influenced by inappropriate…

This paper reports selected findings from a study of number sense proficiency of students aged 13 to 16 years in a state in Malaysia. A total of 1756 students, from thirteen schools in a state in Malaysia participated in this study. A majority (74.9%) of these students obtained an A grade for their respective year-end school examinations. The…

First year students' academic performance in three Life Science courses (Botany, Zoology and Bioscience) was compared. Pass rates, as well as the means and distributions of final marks were analysed. Of the three components (coursework, practical and theory examinations) contributing to the final mark of each course, students performed best in the…

Principles are established for reaching valid decisions as to whether evaluative judgments should be norm referenced or criterion referenced. A set of decision rules is presented, in flow chart form, to serve as a guide to the decision-making process. The use of these decision rules is illustrated for a variety of practical situations. The…

Test publishers have promoted their commercially available norm-referenced achievement tests as viable solutions to assessment challenges faced by states. They argue that their tests are developed professionally and therefore possess sound psychometric properties not often found in state-specific efforts. This study compared judgments from two…

Analyzed average performance changes between tested grades for Hawaiian students who took the Stanford Achievement Test from 1992 to 1996. These local norms for Hawaii provide tools to improve the understanding of the performance of Hawaiian students relative to their mainland counterparts. (SLD)

Criterion-referenced evaluation (CRE) describes achievement in performance terms, whereas norm-referenced evaluation (NRE) compares the performance of one individual to that of others with respect to a given evaluation instrument. Vocational educators who base their programs on behaviorism commonly evaluate student performance from a CRE…

Examined parents' perceptions of and satisfaction with the eligibility assessment of their 4- to 5-year-olds with special needs for special education services. Found that parents thought the activity-based assessment provided more information about their child's typical performance and functional skills, and addressed more of their concerns than…

Because of misconceptions regarding appropriate measurement strategies, it is necessary to draw distinctions between two major measurement methodologies, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measurement, as they relate to determining basic academic capabilities. Norm-referenced measures are used to ascertain an individual's performance in…

The purpose of this study was to explore the usefulness of the Rasch test analysis model for providing consistent scale statistics between content-referenced and norm-referenced tests across school districts. A number of content-referenced tests were created to assess student performance relative to basic skills goals identified in reading and…

The general purpose of this study was to compare the differences in middle school students' mathematics achievement, their changes in attitude towards mathematics, and their attitude towards evaluation when evaluated with two different measurement strategies. The primary purpose of the study was to compare aspects of criterion-referenced and…