Chapter 15

To Ingrid’s grandmother, I would explain what a norm-referenced test is, and what it measures. I would tell her that, in this case, Ingrid’s scores on a standardized achievement test were measured in several categories, and her scores were compared to that of those in her norm group (age level/grade level). Ingrid’s scores are displayed in two ways – in standard nines and in a percentile.

I would explain to her that a stanine score has an average of a score of 5 for standardized testing, and a standard deviation of 2. I would try to explain that a standard deviation means that although the average is 5, it is very common for someone in this grade level to have a score two points below or above, so around 3 or 7. I would then explain that in the content areas that Ingrid scored above a 5 (reading comprehension – 8; science – 8; and social studies – 7), Ingrid scored above average. She scored average in math concepts (5), and below average in spelling (4) and math computation (4). Therefore, Ingrid’s grandmother can see that Ingrid’s strengths are in reading comprehension, science and social studies; and her weaknesses are in math computation and spelling.

I would then go on to explain that a percentile is the percentage of students at the same age/grade level as Ingrid that scored less than or equal to Ingrid’s scores. I would point out that in reading comprehension, Ingrid scored better than 92% students at her grade level, and in math computation she scored better than 37% of the students at her level. I would also be sure to explain to her grandmother that the percentile rank is not always reliable and can distort the differences between students.

Lastly, I would explain the National Percentile Bands section of the printout. Although it is very obvious how to read the lines of x’s falling within “well below average” and “well above average”, I would make sure to explain why the numbers in the middle are closer together. I would tell her grandmother that this means that in a normal distribution, the scores closer to the average have less of a difference between each other compared to the scores farthest away from the average.

After Ingrid’s grandmother has a better understanding of how to read the scores, I will inform her that Ingrid seems to need extra help in three areas – math computation, spelling and math concepts. She could help Ingrid in math by explaining the directions to the homework clearly for Ingrid, modeling the homework problem, and be sure to go over Ingrid’s finished work when it is done. Her grandmother can also go over Ingrid’s spelling words each week to help her gain mastery. If Ingrid’s grandmother has any other questions, I will be sure to help explain the results and ideas for helping Ingrid more clearly.