ABSTRACT
Educational assessments and credentialing examinations are often used today to classify examinees into ordered performance categories such as masters and nonmasters, or advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic. These performance categories are typically defined with respect to a welldefined domain of content and skills. The domain of content and skills for educational assessments may be the product of collaboration among curriculum specialists, teachers, and policymakers; and for credentialing examinations, may come from the findings of a job analysis or role delineation study. Performance categories rather than the test scores themselves will sometimes be a more meaningful way to communicate test results. For example with National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) score reporting, the significance of a change in the average mathematics score of 2 points between 1992 and 1996 for a group of examinees may not be understood, and the meaning of the 2-point difference may be difficult to communicate clearly “The percentage of examinees performing at the proficient level increased from 30% to 35% in
the interval between the two administrations of the assessment” may be a more meaningful way to report the results-assuming of course that the meaning of proficient level performance has been clearly articulated.
