What type of assessment is often presented as a percentile score?

A percentile score is a statistic that indicates the relative standing of a student compared to a larger group, often referred to as the norm group. In this context, norm-referenced assessments are designed to measure a student's performance in relation to the average performance of a group, typically determined through standardized testing.

When a student's score is presented as a percentile, it indicates the percentage of scores in a norm group that the student's score equals or exceeds. For example, a 75th percentile score means that the student performed better than 75% of the group, providing a clear context regarding how the student ranks compared to peers. This is essential for identifying strengths and weaknesses in a student's abilities relative to others, making norm-referenced assessments particularly useful for understanding student performance on a larger scale.

Other types of assessments serve different purposes. Formative assessment is aimed at monitoring student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. Criterion-referenced assessment focuses on measuring student performance against a fixed set of standards or criteria, rather than against the performance of others. Summative assessment evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Thus, while they all provide