MTLE Special Education Core Skills (Birth To Age 21) Subtest II (186) Practice

The key idea is how performance is interpreted: criterion-referenced assessments measure what a student can do against a defined standard, while norm-referenced assessments measure how a student does compared with a group of peers. Criterion-referenced tests judge mastery of specific skills or standards—if the student meets the criterion, they pass, regardless of how others perform. Norm-referenced tests, on the other hand, place a student on a curve relative to a norm group to show where they stand in comparison to peers. So the best statement says that criterion-referenced measures performance against a defined criterion, while norm-referenced compare performance to a norm group. For example, a math test that requires demonstrating a particular procedure or reaching a specific score criterion is criterion-referenced; a test that reports a percentile rank based on peer performance is norm-referenced. The other options mix up these relationships or attach ideas (like standardization or progress toward a standard) that aren’t the defining difference.