An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments

The institutions in education use various assessment methods to decide on the proficiency levels of students in a particular construct. This study investigated whether the decisions differed based on the type of assessment: norm- and criterion-referenced assessment. An achievement test with 20 multi...

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Main Authors: Selahattin Gelbal, Ismail Cuhadar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: izzet kara 2021-03-01
Series:International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1132550
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author Selahattin Gelbal
Ismail Cuhadar
author_facet Selahattin Gelbal
Ismail Cuhadar
author_sort Selahattin Gelbal
collection DOAJ
description The institutions in education use various assessment methods to decide on the proficiency levels of students in a particular construct. This study investigated whether the decisions differed based on the type of assessment: norm- and criterion-referenced assessment. An achievement test with 20 multiple-choice items was administered to 107 students in guidance and psychological counseling department to assess their mastery in the course of measurement and evaluation. First, the raw scores were transformed into T-scores for the decisions from norm-referenced assessments. Two decisions were made to classify students as passed/failed comparing each student’s T-score with two common cutoffs in education: 50 and 60. Second, two standard-setting methods (i.e., Angoff and Nedelsky) were conducted to get two cut scores for the criterion-referenced assessment with the help of experts in measurement and evaluation. Two more decisions were made on the classification of students into pass/fail group by comparing the raw scores and the cut scores from two standard-setting methods. The proportions of students in pass/fail categories were found to be statistically different across each pair of four decisions from norm- and criterion-referenced assessments. Cohen’s Kappa showed that the decisions based on Nedelsky method indicated a moderate agreement with the pass/fail decisions from the students’ semester scores in measurement and evaluation while the other three decisions showed a lower agreement. Therefore, the criterion-referenced assessment with Nedelsky method might be considered in making pass/fail decisions in education due to its criterion validity from the agreement with the semester scores.
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spelling doaj-art-fcc8580dcdb84f3c9fb62b41fd59d3cd2025-08-20T02:13:15Zengizzet karaInternational Journal of Assessment Tools in Education2148-74562021-03-018192010.21449/ijate.747105618An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced AssessmentsSelahattin Gelbal0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5181-7262Ismail Cuhadar1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5262-5892HACETTEPE UNIVERSITYMinistry of National EducationThe institutions in education use various assessment methods to decide on the proficiency levels of students in a particular construct. This study investigated whether the decisions differed based on the type of assessment: norm- and criterion-referenced assessment. An achievement test with 20 multiple-choice items was administered to 107 students in guidance and psychological counseling department to assess their mastery in the course of measurement and evaluation. First, the raw scores were transformed into T-scores for the decisions from norm-referenced assessments. Two decisions were made to classify students as passed/failed comparing each student’s T-score with two common cutoffs in education: 50 and 60. Second, two standard-setting methods (i.e., Angoff and Nedelsky) were conducted to get two cut scores for the criterion-referenced assessment with the help of experts in measurement and evaluation. Two more decisions were made on the classification of students into pass/fail group by comparing the raw scores and the cut scores from two standard-setting methods. The proportions of students in pass/fail categories were found to be statistically different across each pair of four decisions from norm- and criterion-referenced assessments. Cohen’s Kappa showed that the decisions based on Nedelsky method indicated a moderate agreement with the pass/fail decisions from the students’ semester scores in measurement and evaluation while the other three decisions showed a lower agreement. Therefore, the criterion-referenced assessment with Nedelsky method might be considered in making pass/fail decisions in education due to its criterion validity from the agreement with the semester scores.https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1132550norm-referenced assessmentcriterion-referenced assessmentstandard-settingangoff methodnedelsky methodnorm-referencedassessmentcriterion-referencedassessmentstandard-settingangoff methodnedelsky method
spellingShingle Selahattin Gelbal
Ismail Cuhadar
An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments
International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education
norm-referenced assessment
criterion-referenced assessment
standard-setting
angoff method
nedelsky method
norm-referencedassessment
criterion-referencedassessment
standard-setting
angoff method
nedelsky method
title An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments
title_full An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments
title_fullStr An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments
title_full_unstemmed An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments
title_short An Evaluation of Pass/Fail Decisions through Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments
title_sort evaluation of pass fail decisions through norm and criterion referenced assessments
topic norm-referenced assessment
criterion-referenced assessment
standard-setting
angoff method
nedelsky method
norm-referencedassessment
criterion-referencedassessment
standard-setting
angoff method
nedelsky method
url https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1132550
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