Which type of assessment is used to evaluate a child's performance against established standards?

Criterion-referenced assessment is specifically designed to measure a child's performance against a set of predetermined standards or learning goals. This type of assessment allows educators to determine whether a child has met specific competencies and skills, rather than comparing their performance to that of peers.

In a criterion-referenced assessment, the focus is on what the child can do in relation to the established benchmarks, which can be particularly useful for identifying areas of strength and areas needing improvement. This aligns well with educational objectives, as teachers can tailor instruction to better meet the needs of individual students based on how they perform against these standards.

By contrast, norm-referenced assessments compare a child's performance to that of a norm group, formative assessments are ongoing and aimed at monitoring student learning to provide ongoing feedback, and summative assessments evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard. Each type of assessment serves different purposes, but criterion-referenced assessments are uniquely focused on measuring performance against specific education standards.