Plain English Meaning

Questions or tasks built to check if a student can do exactly what the lesson said they should be able to do, judged against a fixed standard, not against how other students performed.

Full Definition

Test questions, tasks, or performance checks designed to measure whether a learner has met a specific, predefined standard of knowledge or skill, rather than comparing the learner's performance against other students. Each item is tied directly to a stated learning objective and its required level of performance.

Context Anchor

Seen in flight instructor training when building quizzes, oral questions, lesson checks, or performance tasks tied to specific lesson objectives.

Derivation

Criterion' comes from the Greek 'kriterion,' meaning a standard for judging. 'Referenced' means measured against. So a criterion-referenced item is one that is judged against a fixed standard, not against the performance of a group.