The group used as a point of comparison for a test.

a carefully selected racially and geographically diverse set of students chosen by test creators to serve as a basis of comparison for most children in a certain population, such as third grade

a large number of children who are representative of all the children in that age group

The group of pupils who were tested to produce the norms for a test.

The sample of students that was assessed in order to estimate how well the general student population would perform on a particular assessment procedure. A norm group should be as representative as possible of the general population. The norm group should represent the population on dimensions such as ethnicity, socio-economic status, size of school system, location (urban, suburban, rural), and geographic region of the country.

A norm group is a sample of students taken from across the country, representative of the national demographic population. In a norm-referenced test, this group takes the test originally and their results are used as a basis for comparison in subsequent test administrations.