Criterion-referenced grading techniques

Abstract

While teachers have always had the responsibility to make decisions about student progress, at the upper secondary level their decisions have often been moderated and adjusted using external examinations. Recent developments indicate changes in this area towards increased acceptance of the judgments of teachers, and this brings with it increased demands for professionalism and valid decision-making processes. School-based assessment will have to be seen to be considerably better than external examinations on such traditional criteria as tertiary prediction before it will be taken seriously. It will have to overcome the criticisms of school-based assessment, and simultaneously avoid the problems of external examinations and fulfil their perceived benefits. These seem excessive requirements, particularly when one contemplates the relatively unchallenged and unjustified status of the traditional external examination, but they must be met and much rests on the teachers to prove the validity of their judgments. Help is at hand, however, through the development and refinement of criterion-referenced (or objectives-referenced) measurement methods. This approach involves the assessment of student performance in relation to specified objectives (the criteria), producing an on-going statement of the specific competencies each student has independently acquired.