The teacher's task of assigning letter grades to students and the public's interpretation of them can be perplexing. Does the student's grade represent the level of achievement, the gain in achievement, or some combination of the two? Is the student's effort included in the grade, or are high achievers given good marks regardless of effort? Are…

Resources in Education, the Current Index to Journals in Education, and Psychological Abstracts were computer searched in order to identify documents and journal articles which describe the derivation, use, and misuse of grade equivalent scores, those scores which reflect a student's performance in a test or battery of tests according to grade…

When 74 sixth-grade special education students were tested on the fifth-and fourth-grade levels of the 1977 California Achievement Test, their scores dropped significantly, although converted to in-level norms. Test validity, measured by the number of students scoring at floor level, on the in-level versus below-level norms, was subtest dependent.…

The cautions needed for correctly interpreting grade equivalent scores are presented simply, for persons who are not statisticians. Four potential limitations of grade equivalent scores are summarized. (1) Comparisons across grades are of little value when the subject content is not the same; for example, sixth grade American history is not…

The developer of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills scaling responds to Hoover's attacks on Thurstone and item response theory scales (TM 510 173). While agreeing that grade equivalent (GE) scores are presently the most appropriate developmental score for reporting elementary grade achievement tests, limitations and inconsistencies in the GE…

A comprehensive review of test practices and recommendations for setting up a district testing program that will meet informational needs. (Editor)

Fifty-six school psychologists reviewed a hypothetical case study designed to investigate their interpretations of different norm-referenced test scores. Subjects were more likely to recommend special education programs for normal students when percentile scores were used. School psychologists need to become more familiar with the properties of…

Grade equivalent (GE) scores for elementary school achievement tests are defended in response to efforts to ban their use. Equal interval developmental scoring methods for the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills are criticized. (BS)

Organized as a question-and-answer booklet, this parents' guide explains scores on standardized reading achievement tests. Examples illustrate the meaning of certain grade equivalent scores. The grade equivalent method is described as a poor way to report scores; raw scores, percentiles, and stanine ranges are discussed as alternatives. The…

The relative magnitudes of R-squared values computed through multiple regression models using grade equivalent scores, raw scores, standard scores, and percentiles as both predictor and criterion variables are compared. Grade equivalents and standard scores produced the highest R-squared values. (Author/JKS)

The author addresses issues raised by Burket (TM 510 174) about the Iowa Test of Basic Skills scaling procedures. Further reasons for his criticism of Thurstone scale scores and item response theory scale scores for elementary school achievement tests are given. (BS)

This document contains 49 pages of tables presenting data ranking schools' reading achievement in New York City. Scores are from the Degrees of Reading Power test administered in grades 3 to 10 in 1986. This report complies with the New York City Decentralization Law's requirement that each school be ranked by the percentage of pupils reading at…

In certain situations, grade equivalent scores are the most appropriate statistic available for reporting achievement test data. It is noted that testing practitioners have found that raw scores, normal curve equivalents, stanines, and standard scores are very useful. However, it is best to convert to either grade equivalents or percentiles before…

While most school districts believe they understand grade equivalent scores, teachers, parents, and measurement specialists frequently misinterpret this apparently simple statistical expression. Echternacht's article describes the construction, application, and interpretation of grade equivalent scores from the test publisher's perspective.…

For Title I evaluations, it may be appropriate to test out-of-level; that is, to override publisher's recommendations concerning the difficulty, length, and content appropriate for a particular grade. It is seldom necessary, however, to move more than one grade down. If the mean is substantially higher than the median, then some pupils will have…