Interpreting Standardized Assessment Test Scores and Setting Performance Goals in the Context of Student Characteristics: The Case of the Major Field Test in Business

The Major Field Test in Business (MFT-B), a standardized assessment test of business knowledge among undergraduate business seniors, is widely used to measure student achievement. The Educational Testing Service, publisher of the assessment, provides data that allow institutions to compare their own MFT-B performance to national norms, but that procedure fails to take the characteristics of institutional student cohorts into account. Using empirical methods, the authors describe and test a procedure to set a priori goals that take dispositional factors, most notably ACT scores, into account. This procedure enables interpretation of the MFT-B in relation to expectations.