Your Child’s Test Scores
The scores for your child’s test show how many questions the child answered correctly. If there are 50 questions on a test section, and the child answers only 35 of them, and they’re all correct, the score is 35. If the child answers 35 correctly and 10 incorrectly, the score is 35. So you can let your child know that if they don’t know the answer to a question, they can go ahead and guess – and they might guess the correct answer!
Tests are designed to provide a generous margin for completion. So, out of 50 questions in a section, some children might answer them all within the allotted time, some might answer all of them ahead of time, and some might not answer them all. This is completely normal, so children should not worry if they finish “too fast” or if they don’t complete all the questions in a section.
What the Test Score Means
You will receive your child’s test scores within four weeks of the test. There will be a series of numbers reflecting the results:
- Raw Score: This is how many questions were answered correctly in each section. Questions that were not answered, or questions answered incorrectly, are not counted.
- Scale Score: This is a mathematical conversion of the raw score that allows for translation to the other parts of the scores.
- Grade Equivalent: This is a measure of how the child performed on the test compared to standard expectations for grade level instruction. The first digit represents the year of the grade level, and the digit after the decimal represents the month of that grade level. The average expectation for the end of a grade would be that a 3rd grader would score 3.9 grade level, a 5th grader would score 5.9 grade level, etc. Grade Equivalents that are within approximately two years of the learner’s actual grade placement are generally accurate descriptions of the learner’s level of achievement. If a 3rd grader gets a 5.4, it does not mean the child is ready for the 5th grade or that 5th grade material was on the test. It just means that an average 5th grader would have scored as well on the same test. It also lets you know the 3rd grader mastered the material very well on the test and answered most of the questions correctly.
- National Percentile: A National Percentile Score ranks learners on a scale of 1-99, with 50 being average. There isn’t a 100th percentile because your child can’t do better than their own self. A percentile of 75 means your child scored better than 75 percent of the other learners in his or her national norm group, and 25 percent scored as well or better than your learner. It does not mean the learner got 75 percent of the items correct. Percentile does not refer to the percent of questions that were answered correctly. This is the best score for describing achievement test results to persons outside the test and measurement community.
- Stanine: A score that divides the norm population into nine groups. 1 is the lowest, 5 equals the 50th percentile, and 9 is the highest.
- Normal Curve Equivalent: This score “looks” like a percentile ranging from 1 to 99 but has the advantage of being a number you can average. This score can show how much a learner or group has grown over time. Gains of 5 or more are considered “statistically significant.” NCE is generally not recommended for use in reporting scores of individual learners, since it is easily confused with National Percentiles and has no inherent or readily apparent meaning.
Your child’s test results will also include a Diagnostic Profile. This breaks down the specific skills measured by different sections of the test. Certain areas are rates as “high” “medium” or “low” mastery, and may give you clues as to what types of things to work on in the coming year. Keep in mind that if a learner did not finish a section of the test, the unanswered questions will count as “missed” – so the Diagnostic Profile may not accurately reflect the true mastery level for that subject.