Teaching · Related Services

Check the norm group before you trust the score.

Enter the figures from the technical manual and what sets the student apart. The review says how old the norms are, whether the age band is thin and what to state in the report.

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Related Services toolkit, $99 for 96 items.

The norm review

One review per student and test. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Related Services$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
The age of the norms, the size of the age band, the variables matched, the cautions to report and a sentence for the report.
Who it is for
School psychologists, speech-language pathologists and educational diagnosticians using norm-referenced tests.
Format
Browser form. One saved review per student and test; printed for the file or as a blank form; CSV; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Related Services toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Related Services space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
compared with whom, and when
Drawn for this page. A standard score is only a comparison with the norm group; if that group is old, small or unlike the student, the comparison weakens.

How to use it

  1. Start a review with the student’s code.
  2. Take the norm year and sample sizes from the technical manual.
  3. Mark what the sample was matched on and who it included.
  4. Note what sets the student apart from the sample.
  5. Copy the cautions into the validity section of your report.

Review the norms

What makes norms fit

Age of norms

Average performance on ability tests rose through the twentieth century, about 3 IQ points a decade (the Flynn effect), so older norms make scores look higher than current ones would. Achievement norms also age as curricula change.

Size and makeup

Many measurement texts suggest at least 100 people per age or grade band for stable norms, matched to the census on the variables that relate to performance. The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing ask publishers to describe the norm group and users to judge whether it suits the person tested.

English learners

When a student’s language background is not represented in the norms, the score partly measures English. Federal rules require assessments in the student’s native language or usual mode of communication where feasible (34 CFR 300.304(c)(1)(ii)).

Sources

  1. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (2014), chapters 1, 3 and 5.
  2. Salvia, J., Ysseldyke, J. E., & Witmer, S. Assessment in Special and Inclusive Education (13th ed.). Cengage, 2017.
  3. Flynn, J. R. (1987). Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101(2), 171–191.
  4. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.304(c)(1).

The example review is made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.