Transcript Problematising Criterion Referenced Testing in the Indian

Tulika Prasad
Associate Professor
(Dept.of English)
University of Delhi
Various models of Assessment
 Norm-referenced Assessment
 Criterion –referenced Assessment
 Ipsative Assessment
Norm referenced Assessment
 What is Norm referenced Assessment?
 Why the need to change to criterion referenced
assessment ?
Criterion Referenced
Assessment
 What do we understand by criterion referenced
testing ?
 Is it better than norm referenced testing?
 How?
 While norm-referenced tests ascertains the rank of
students, criterion-referenced tests (CRTs)
determine "...what test takers can do and what they
know, not how they compare to others (Anastasi,
1988, p. 102).
Advantages of Criterion
Referenced Assessment
 Students learn based on their needs.
 Students study and practise their own goals and
objectives.
 Students are expected to achieve realistic goals.
 Grades are solely dependent on how students
perform against their goals and objectives.
contd.
 When students reach their goals, they feel a sense of
accomplishment, which encourages them to keep
trying their best and this will eventually, lead to
better scores.
 The whole concept of criterion-referenced
instruction means that the teaching moves away
from grade-level content to content based on what
the students need.
Norm-Referenced
Criterion-Reference
Purpose
To measure how much a
test taker knows
compared to another
student.
To measure how much
the test taker knows
before and after the
instruction is finished.
Content
Norm-Referenced tests
measure broad skill
areas taken from a
variety of textbooks and
syllabi.
Criterion-Reference tests
measure the skills the
test taker has acquired
on finishing a
curriculum.
Score interpretation
In Norm-Referenced
tests, if a test taker ranks
95%, it implies that
he/she has performed
better than 95% of the
other test takers.
In Criterion-Reference,
the score determines
how much of the
curriculum is
understood by the test
taker.
Reliability of CRA
 Defined in terms of consistency in the classification
of candidates to performance categories over a
number of tests administered to them
 Variation in candidate score is not important if
candidates are still assigned the same performance
category after taking a number of tests
Validity of CRA
 The match between the content of the test items and
the knowledge or skills that they are intended to
measure
 The match between the collection of test items and
what they measure and the domain of content that
the tests are expected to measure
Disadvantages of CRA
 Creating tests that are both valid and reliable
requires fairly extensive and expensive time and
effort
 Results cannot be generalized especially if the
criteria set for a course is specific only for that course
or the criteria has been defined in a very narrow
sense.
Overview of CEFR
 What is CEFR ?
 Issues in implementing CEFR
Assessment in the Indian
Context
 Issues of of assessment in our (Indian) schools and
universities
 Impact of this kind of assessment
 How to resolve this: alternatives available
Criterion Referenced Testing in
the Indian Context
 Validity of using CEFR scales in a multilingual
context (India).
 Challenges of CRA in the Indian context
Discussion of a CRA model
 Promises and problems of this model.
 Is there hope at the end of the tunnel ?
Ipsative Assessment
 What is Ipsative assessment?
 Is it a viable alternative?
 How? Students are only judged against themselves,
therefore they have a better chance of scoring high,
which will help improve their self-esteem as well.