A financier offers to pay for a trip to a national athletics meeting for all team members who have the ability to compete at that level. The team coach holds tryouts. He picks everyone whose time in the 100 yard sprint falls above the 90th percentile. This is norm-referenced testing. His requests for funds is rejected because he does not know whether his runners can compete at the required level.
He runs a second tryout, having established that 10 seconds in the 100 yard sprint is competitive in the event. He now picks those who run the distance in 10 seconds or less. This is criterion-referenced testing. He knows the runners he selected can compete. He gets the funds.
Valpar's products rely heavily on criterion-referenced testing, as opposed to norm-referenced testing. Criterion-referenced testing, unlike norm-referenced testing, uses an objective standard or achievement level. An evaluee is required to demonstrate ability at a particular level by performing tasks at that degree of difficulty. Scores on criterion-referenced tests indicate what individuals can do — not how they have scored in relation to the scores of particular groups of persons, as in norm-referenced tests.
Norm-referenced tests compare an individual's performance to the performance of a group, called the “norm group.” For the results to be meaningful, it is necessary to know the specific composition of the norm group. For example, if an individual scores at the 87th percentile on a mathematics test, what can you say about his/her mathematical abilities? Nothing, until something is known about the norm group. One conclusion will be reached if the norm group is a collection of second year students at grammar school. An entirely different conclusion will be reached if the norm group is a collection of university mathematics lecturers.
Even knowing about the norm group is no guarantee of proper test interpretation. The TABE is a norm-referenced test published by McGraw Hill. It reports test performance in terms of grade levels, and it gives scores as high as grade 12.9 (i.e. 18 year-old students). An analysis of the test items reveals that none of the questions are above the eighth grade level (i.e. 13 year-old students)with no algegra, no geometry, and no trigonometry. So what does a score of 11 mean? McGraw Hill says it means that the individual performed on the test like the average 11th grader (i.e. 16 year-old students), NOT that the person is doing 11th grade mathematics. Many users of the TABE, and tests like it, incorrectly make the second interpretation. The TABE relies on the notion that an 16 year-old student can do more simple problems in 15 minutes than a 13 year-old can.
Criterion-referenced testing avoids all this confusion. Concrete
criteria are established and the individual is challenged to meet
them. With respect to Valpar assessment tests, these are criterion-referenced to the
demands of jobs as specified by the US Department of Labor (DOL) job database.
The job demands reflet the achievement level necessary for success in a given job situation.