Gregory J. Cizek - Setting performance standards: concepts, methods, and perspectives

Cover

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Concepts, Methods, and Perspectives

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SETTING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

Concepts, Methods, and Perspectives

Edited by
Gregory J. Cizek
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other
means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Setting performance standards : concepts, methods, and
perspectives / [edited] by Gregory J. Cizek.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3674-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. EducationStandardsUnited States. 2. Educational
tests and measurementsUnited States. I. Cizek, Gregory J.
LB3060.83 .S57 2001
371.26'0973dc21
00-060974

Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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It is surely more than a personal conviction to assert that a book on standard setting is sorely needed. Standard setting is routinely and frequently performed today in contexts as diverse as elementary and secondary school pupil proficiency testing to licensure for piloting aircraft, driving automobiles, selling real estate, dispensing drugs, or performing retinal surgery. In countries around the world, standard setting is a ubiquitous scientifically and socially informed activity that touches the lives of nearly all human beings in ways that can significantly alter their personal social, psychological, and economic courses.

For such an important enterprise, the field of standard setting has experienced hypertrophic development, growing from relative obscurity to a primary, public, and potent pursuit in nearly all contexts in which standards are set. A number of knowledgeable sources trace standard setting to Biblical accounts of the Gilead guards, China's civil service examinations of 200 B.C., even Chinese military selection dating to 2000 B.C. Whatever the roots, standard setting appears to have plodded along for centuries. As late as 1970, it was not controversial to set a standard using norm-referenced methods, which assured that, for example, 20% of a group of examinees would fail, not receive a license or credential, or not be selected for a special program. The 20% standard would be enforced across dozens of administrations of a test, blissfully oblivious to possible variation in the average capabilities of the groups being tested. As an area