A score of 68 in one examination system means a fixed standard of work. In another it means being in the top fifteen per cent of candidates that year. The number looks identical and the two cannot be compared.
Criterion-referenced marking describes what a candidate can do: a published standard, and as many candidates reach it as reach it. Norm-referenced marking describes where a candidate sits relative to others: a fixed proportion get each grade, whatever the standard of the cohort. Each has a defensible purpose. A driving test must be criterion-referenced, because the question is whether this person can drive and not whether they drive better than the others sitting the test that morning. A selection for twenty places must be norm-referenced in effect, because the places are the constraint.
The confusion arises when a system does one and is reported as the other. If grade boundaries move each year to hold proportions roughly steady, then a rise in attainment cannot appear in the results, and a public argument about whether standards are rising is being conducted using a measure designed to be insensitive to the answer. Conversely, a criterion-referenced system will show grades rising when teaching improves, and that rise is read by some as evidence that the examination has got easier.
The honest practice is to state which system is in use wherever a figure is published, and to keep a separate, stable measure for tracking change over time — a set of anchor items reused quietly across years, which allows the two questions to be answered separately.
The question for a candidate is narrower and worth asking: am I being measured against a standard or against the people in the room. The revision that follows is not the same.
Vocabulary in this text
- candidate /ˈkændədeɪt/ — a person being considered for a job or prize
- compare /kəmˈpɛɹ/ — to look at how two things are alike or different
- criterion /kɹaɪˈtɪɹiən/ — a standard used to judge or decide something
- describe /dɪskɹˈaɪb/ — to say what someone or something is like
- norm /ˈnɔɹm/ — the usual or accepted standard
- proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/ — a part of a whole, often as a share
- cohort /ˈkoʊhɔɹt/ — a group of people with something in common, often age
- defensible /dɪˈfɛnsəbəl/ — able to be justified with reasons
- constraint /kənstɹˈeɪnt/ — something that limits what you can do
- attainment /əˈteɪnmənt/ — the level someone has reached in learning