Which assessment approach uses standardized tests to compare student performance against peers?

The assessment approach that uses standardized tests to compare student performance against peers is norm-referenced assessment. This method evaluates how a student's performance measures up relative to the performance of a specific group, typically peers of the same age or grade in a well-defined population. The primary purpose of norm-referenced assessments is to rank students, which helps educators understand where individual students stand in relation to their peers.

Because these assessments are standardized, they provide a uniform measure that can be utilized to generate percentile ranks or scoring categories, creating a framework for comparison. This is especially useful for identifying students who may need additional support or those who are excelling. The focus on comparison sets norm-referenced assessments apart from other types, such as criterion-referenced assessments, which measure student performance against predefined criteria or learning standards rather than against peer performance.