FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

What is a common critical aspect of norm-referenced testing?

1. It focuses on mastery of content

2. It limits the distribution of high scores

3. It assesses only the lowest performing students

4. It is based solely on subjective evaluations

The correct answer is: It limits the distribution of high scores

Norm-referenced testing is designed to compare a student's performance against that of a larger group. A critical aspect of this type of testing is the ranking of students relative to one another, which inherently leads to a distribution of scores among test-takers. In a norm-referenced assessment, the intention is often to establish a bell curve distribution of performance, where scores are distributed across various percentile ranks. Limiting the distribution of high scores indicates that this kind of assessment has a mechanism for identifying a specific proportion of students at each performance level; thus, only a certain percentage of students can achieve the highest scores, regardless of actual mastery of the content. This characteristic helps to distinguish between different levels of performance among students, showcasing how each individual's performance stands in relation to their peers. In contrast, mastery of content is more aligned with criterion-referenced testing, which focuses on whether students meet predefined standards rather than how they compare to others. Assessing only the lowest performing students would not reflect the purpose of norm-referenced tests, which aims to evaluate the entire population being measured. Lastly, these tests typically involve standardized questions and scoring, negating the idea that they are based solely on subjective evaluations.