Week 3

            I was very interested in the concept of norm-referenced tests and the importance of ascertaining the norm group for a particular test.  I had no idea that the norm group for tests like the KBIT was based on the census data so that the norm group would be a reflection of the current population of the United States (Drummond and Jones, 2010). I would think it would be very complicated to get a norm group that would be reflective of the various demographics listed such as parental education, ethnicity, socio-economic status, region of the country, etc.  When it comes to testing and finding a stratified sample, there are so many variables and how would one determine which ones are integral to a student’s test performance?  Still it is comforting to know that students are not norm-referenced against a norm group of children all of whose parents have advanced degrees, or all of who are English language learners.  That is of course unless I am interested in knowing how students compare to other similar students as opposed to knowing how they fare according the general populace.  It would seem that the norm group should be chosen based on the intent of the assessment.  Therefore, as in accordance with RUST (2003) guidelines, the purpose of any test should be very clear when choosing an assessment as well as when choosing the interpretation of the results.  Perhaps that is why the PSSA results that are often reported in the paper have scores for all students and then there are subset average scores for ELL students and Low SES students.  In this way districts and parents can get results that help them learn about different aspects of their educational progress and can get results that speak to specific assessment purposes. 

References

American Counseling Association, & Association for Assessment in Counseling. (2003). Responsibilities of users of standardized tests (RUST). Alexandria, VA: Author.

Drummond, R. J. and Jones, K. (2010). Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.