A criterion-referenced test is one that is used to identify an individual student's status with respect to an established standard of performance. This standard of performance, a performance objective, describes the expected student behavioral changes and the conditions and criteria under which these changes will occur. The specificity of the performance objective and the clarity with which it describes the behavior representing the objective to be achieved provides direct meaning to the students' scores. Performance on test items is meant to tell how much the student knows about the topic or how well he or she can perform the task. This booklet presents guidelines for developing a criterion-referenced test, a comparison between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests, information on some standardized criterion-referenced tests, and methods by which the educator can utilize criterion-referenced tests for assessing classroom instruction. (Author/IRT)