PROFICIENCY GLOSSARY
Anchors: Are agreed upon standard examples of student performance or product selected
to represent levels of performance within a standard or benchmark.
Benchmarks: Describe what the student should know and be able to do at various levels (i.e.
first and third grades) in order to attain the performance standards at grades 5, 8, or 12.
We describe three levels of performance: Advanced, Proficient, and Basic.
Content: Defines the knowledge, process and skills within a subject area.
Content standards: Are a compilation of specific statements of what a student should know
and be able to do relative to a particular academic area.
Criterion-referenced assessment: Is an assessment that is designed to provide information on
a student’s attainment of specified knowledge and/or skills. The results have meaning in
relation to what the student knows or is able to do (rather than on the student in relation
to a reference group, as in a norm-referenced test.)
Curriculum: Is the ordering of the content that allows students to acquire and integrate the
knowledge and skills.
Multiple validations: Are several different types of evidence that are used to assess an
individual’s knowledge, skills, and level of performance.
Norm-referenced assessment: Is an assessment (often a commercially published test) that is
designed to provide information on how well a student performs in comparison to other
students. The scores on a norm-referenced assessment have meaning in terms of their
relation to the scores of an external reference group (the norm group.)
Performance assessment: Refers to a task or situation in which students are given an
opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and thoughtfully apply knowledge and
skills. The approach requires students to construct their own responses to questions or
prompts rather than to select from alternatives that are presented. Performance
assessments are developed in a variety of contexts to represent the multifaceted nature
of a proficiency.
For example, performance assessment may include:
Performance tasks
Portfolios
Observations
Student self-assessments
Authentic assessments (one form of
performance assessment in which
students perform tasks that mirror real life)
Performance standards: Describe what the student should know and be able to do by the
end of the fifth, eighth, and twelfth grades in order to attain the proficiencies. Three
levels of performance are described as: Advanced, Proficient, and Basic.
Portfolios: Are a collection of student work used to set improvement goals, show student
progress, and demonstrate achievement. Portfolios are sometimes used for reporting to
parents and other educators.
Proficiency Glossary.docx
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Proficiencies: Are statements that define the important knowledge and skills to be learned in
a content area. They are referred to in state definitions as content standards.
Proficiency based curricular alignment: Is the process of matching district curriculum, course
guides, teacher activities, goals, lessons, units, instructional practices and assessments to
district proficiencies to ensure that they are consistent.
Proficiency status: Describes the level of student performance relative to a proficiency, using
one of four levels: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, or Pre-basic.
Rubrics: Are scoring guides for evaluating student work and provide common agreement on
evaluating performance.
Standardized tests: Are tests in which the administration, scoring, and reporting processes are
identical for all individuals; e.g. same instructions and timing, comparable testing
facilities, access to same equipment and materials, use of trained proctors, same scoring
guide or answer key.
Student proficiency data collection: Refers to the process teachers use by considering
multiple pieces of information and/or validations to determine student proficiency status.
Teacher judgment: Is an appraisal or decision about the performance level of a student
related to the knowledge and skills inherent in a proficiency. Teachers make a judgment
by discerning and evaluating data gathered from multiple sources, using a sound,
reasonable, and replicable decision making process.
Proficiency Glossary.docx
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