Criterion Referencing

How should one assess student work fairly and equitably? At some level, this lies at the root of your questions and concerns regarding pacing and rhythm of the course. Or, questions of pacing imply questions of workload, and that impacts different people in different ways---and, ultimately, impacts assessed performance. I believe I have a solution.

Norm-Referencing

The most common kind of grading you've experienced is known as norm-referencing. In norm-referenced grading, we run the following algorithm:

1. Apply external criteria to the work you do.
2. Find the grade distribution for the class.
3. Curve that distribution (possibly).
4. Position individuals in terms of the average of the population.

This means several things:

1. If you are all low-performing students (according to the criteria applied), you should all get C's.
2. If you are all high-performing students (according to the criteria applied), you should all get C's.
3. If you are the one person who performs well (according to the criteria applied), you will get an A.
4. If you are the one person who performs poorly (...), you will get a D or F.

All of these grades, of course, depend on the criteria (usually unknown in advance), and the people around you. You have no control over either. Further, in a small population (5-30 students), the distribution can become skewed very rapidly.

Criterion-Referencing

In a criterion-referenced assessment scheme, we set criteria and the grade associated with those criteria in advance. While there is still some room for subjectivity (was the work done to a high standard of excellence?), if the criteria are achieved, then the stated grade should be earned.

For example, you could imagine an assignment structured where, if you do the first and simplest step, you get a C, as it represents average effort and learning outcomes. If you proceed through several more implementation steps, with excellent documentation, you get an A, as it represents excellent learning and outcomes. These criteria, if laid out in advance, are available for all to achieve, and no one individual's assessment is dependent on how any other individual performs.

You can read more about this by Googling for criterion referencing or criterion referenced assessment. I found this document from the University of Melbourne PDF to be very useful as well.

Moving Forward

I am going to be applying criterion-referenced schema to the programming assignments in Operating Systems. This will allow me to set performance goals that are clearly articulated, and let you balance your workload against the assessment level that you aspire to achieve.

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