Question

A primary purpose of a criterion-referenced reading benchmark is to:

A. Identify a student's level of mastery of a curriculum-based skill as beginning, developing, or proficient.
B. Compare a student's mastery of a specific skill to that of peers who have previously taken the same assessment.
C. Evaluate student skill mastery by reporting performance with raw scores, percentile ranking, and grade equivalents.
D. Set the standards for student skill mastery along with a time frame indicating when the level of mastery should be achieved.

Answer 1

The primary purpose of a criterion-referenced reading benchmark is to gauge individual student competency in specific skills, not to compare them with peers or rank them by score.

Step-by-step explanation:

A primary purpose of a criterion-referenced reading benchmark is to identify a student's level of mastery of curriculum-based skills. The correct answer is A: Identify a student's level of mastery of a curriculum-based skill as beginning, developing, or proficient. Unlike norm-referenced assessments, which compare a student to peers, criterion-referenced assessments measure student performance against a fixed set of criteria or learning standards, such as those by the Common Core State Standards Initiative. These benchmarks are evidence-based and designed to be clear and consistent, aimed at preparing students for further education and their future careers by testing their knowledge and higher-order thinking skills.