NORMS AND TEST SCALES

SELECTING THE SAMPLE:

He proceeds to select a representative sample from each of the target population or group. A cross-sectional representation of the target sample must be made.

STANDARDIZED CONDITIONING FOR PROPER IMPLEMENTATION OF TEST:

Unless conditions of test administration are standardized, valid and proper comparisons of individual test scores to test norms are impossible. Without these standardization procedures, norms cannot serve as a useful comparative device.

TYPES OF NORMS AND TEST SCALES:

AGE NORMS: The average performance of a representative sample of a certain age level on the measure of a certain trait or ability. Most suited to those traits or abilities which increase systematically with age. Some disadvantages of age norms. Age norms lack a standard and uniform unit throughout the period of growth of physical and psychological traits.

 Arises from the fact that the growth rate of some traits are not comparable. A trait like acuity of vision cannot be expressed in terms of age norms because this trait does not exhibit progressive change over the year.

 GRADE NORMS: The average performance of a representative sample of a certain grade or class. Some limitations: Grade norms of the same students in different subjects are not comparable. Grade norms assume that all students of a class or grade have more or less similar curriculum experiences. Is not suited to those subjects in which there occurs rapid growth in the elementary class and a very slow in the higher classes.

 PERCENTILE NORMS: Most popular and common type of norms used in psychological and educational tests. Prepared for either adults or children and for any type of test. Indicates. For each raw score, percentage of standardization sample that falls below that raw score. Advantages: they are easy to construct, easy to understand, that even an untrained person can freely use them.

 Laymen as well as skilled persons sometimes fail to distinguish between the percentile and he percentage score, and the obvious result is confusion. But the two should not be confused because percentile is a derived or converted score usually expressed in terms of percentages of persons. whereas the percentage scores is a raw score expressed in terms of percentages of items.

 The biggest limitation of the percentile norms is that of inequality of units throughout the percentile scale. The common observation is that most of the raw scores obtained in psychological and educational measurement approximate the normal distribution and when they are expressed in terms of percentile norms. Indicates only the person relative position in the standardization sample. The convey nothing regarding the amount of the actual difference between the scores.

 STANDARD NORMS: