VALIDATING STATE-MANDATED CRITERION-REFERENCED ACHIEVEMENT-TESTS WITH NORM-REFERENCED TEST-RESULTS FOR ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY STUDENTS

The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) achievement test is a criterion-referenced test mandated as part of a statewide accountability law. Standards have been empirically determined for selected grade levels. Criterion-referenced tests, however, are not evaluated solely on the basis of their psychometric properties; results also must be interpretable by and credible to laypersons. In this study, methods for validating criterion-referenced test results through correlation with an accessible and easily understood norm-referenced benchmark were explored. LEAP scores and pass/fall decisions for 21,000 Grade 3 students and 8,000 Grade 10 students were compared with scores on the California Achievement Test (CAT). Correlational analyses indicated moderately strong relationships between criterion-referenced and norm-referenced subtests. LEAP pass/fail decisions based on CAT scores had error rates in the 12% to 20% range. Procedures for using norm-referenced tests to validate criterion-referenced tests are discussed.