Educational Measurements: Performance Standards

In educational measurement, there are three areas that are mainly put into consideration. These fields include exams, survey and the monitoring of students’ progress. According to Tingley, in his article “State right to toughen test”, the importance of exams is to take decisions on individual students. However, setting of performance is always applied regardless of the purpose. The understanding of passing scores in examination is expressed in terms of standard of performance.

Performance standards are based on the postulation that the passing mark will keep up a correspondence to the specified performance standard (Tingley, 2010). This means that, the examinees with scores below the passing score are not likely to meet the standard while the examinees that scores above the passing score are likely to meet the standard. As the tests become harder the standards also become tougher to congregate. Additionally, the particular performance standard is rational given the aim of the decision. In learning institutions, performance standards explain the levels of students’ achievement in key learning areas.

They try to describe and demonstrate the four levels of student performance in terms of learning strategies that includes reading, writing, social responsibility and information and communication technology in schools. The performance standards can be of great help as they help plan instructions, contribute to a complete assessment and appraisal system. These standards put much emphasis on performance assessment. In performance assessment, the students are required to apply the various skills and concept they have already learnt in the classroom in order to handle complex and realistic tasks.

The impressions of performance assessment will help to achieve the state learning standards as teachers, parents and also the students will be able to compare student performance to see whether they have attained the state standards and if they have not yet achieved more efforts will be made so as to achieve the state learning standards. Performance standards are known to relate test performance openly to the curriculum of the given state. This is based mainly on what students are anticipated to learn by the end of each grade level.

The curriculum of the state is used to set the test objectives that channel the build up of test items and the assessment content. Therefore, performance standards are based on the substance standards for the given appraisal. In educational performance, the results of the standard setting procedures is a set of cut scores that group students into a suitable performance level. When the performance standards are set in any learning institution and they are achieved, the good scores being attained by the students is a clearer indication that the status of education for that particular State or country is quite high.

The State tests can be used to measure the level of performance standards in terms of advancement of students against other equivalent students (Tingley, 2010). When new standards are implemented in a school, firstly, they work better with the students. However, most of the teachers come to realize their effectiveness when they notice a high rate of improvement in the students’ performance. Any performance standards being set by the State board of education will definitely increase the firmness and improve the education level of that given State.

In order to achieve the State learning standards, the teachers have refined their instructional resources in order to convey the correct performance standards. Therefore, performance standards have been employed successfully in many learning institutions in order to assess both the teachers and the student learning outcomes. References Tingley, K. (Editor). (2010). State right to toughen tests. Retrieved on 31 July 2010 from ttp://poststar. com/news/opinion/editorial/article_73606222-99f0-11df-b064-001cc4c03286. html

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