Selecting Performance Standards
Standards are often referred to as achievement targets, benchmarks, or expectations. Standards help faculty and the institution know the degree to which students are learning and easily provide a way to articulate student learning to each other and to external stakeholders. Setting standards and recording whether students meet those standards (or do not) is an important part of closing the assessment loop each cycle. There are multiple considerations when selecting standards.
Minimum Scores
A standard might be a minimum score, say a score of “4” on a 5-point rubric. It might also be a comparison to an external score such as a national benchmark, for example equal to or greater than the national average for students at a community college. A standard might also be set against previous performance, for example, with an expectation of annual improvement or maybe a demonstrated gain by the end of a semester over a pretest taken during the first week.
Achievement Targets
After a standard is established, it is also important to know the expected percentage of students who should meet the standard. In some cases, for example a licensure exam, meeting a standard may be a requirement to complete the program. In other cases, faculty may expect that a minimum percentage of students, say 80%, will achieve a minimum score. In still other cases, faculty may be looking for improvement over an initial point in time or an initial score.
Sample achievement targets include the following:
- 95% of students will demonstrate the skills safely and accurately in a lab setting.
- 75% of student scores will score at least 20 points higher on the post-test than on the pre-test.
- 80% of students will achieve a B or higher on the exam.
- 80% of students who take the licensure exam will achieve a score equal to or greater than the national average.