A big part of my confusion comes from the use of norm-referenced tests. For my middle school student, the NRTs used were the Terra Nova test in mathematics and the Stanford 10 reading test.

The STAAR's technical documents reveal that the test is designed much like a norm-referenced test – that is, assessing students relative to their peers, rather than if they meet a fixed standard ...

You make some good points about the distinction between norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests, but I disagree with your characterization of the latter. The problem with norm ...

Other well-known tests, such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), Stanford 9 (SAT-9), and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), are norm-referenced, meaning they measure how well a student knows the ...

David J. Hoff was an associate editor for Education Week. A version of this article appeared in the November 08, 2000 edition of Education Week as States Question National Reading-Test Scores ...

The California State Legislature has just approved an ill-conceived idea to allow local school districts to replace the 11th grade Smarter Balanced Assessments aligned with the Common Core standards ...

Texas children’s performance on an annual reading test was basically flat from 2012 to 2021, even as the state spent billions of additional dollars on K-12 education. I recently did a peer ...