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…

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)

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)

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…

An experiment investigated the extent to which the results of out-of-level testing may be biased because the child given an out of level test may have had a significantly different curriculum than the children given in-level tests. Item analysis data suggested this was unlikely. (CTM)

Three assumptions underlying the use of norm referenced tests are examined: (1) that expressing treatment effects in a standard score metric permits aggregation of effects across grades; (2) commonly used standardized tests are sufficiently comparable to permit aggregation of results across tests; and (3) the summer loss of achievement observed in…

The results and methodology of the South Carolina 1977-78 statewide spring testing program for grades 3, 6, and 11 are presented and discussed. The discussion of the results focuses on a comparison of the 1978 results to national norms, a comparison of 1978 to 1977 results, a performance comparison across grade levels, and a comparison of skill…

The purpose of this technical report is to describe the Tests of General Ability and Tests of Reading of the Inter-American Series, to give a brief account of their construction, and to present related statistical data. Norms and suggestions on the use and interpretation of the tests are published separately. The Inter-American Series discussed in…

Many of the evaluations summarized in state and local Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I reports have been negatively affected by methodological errors or the use of different, incompatible formats. Although new, detailed evaluation and reporting procedures have been developed for Title I research projects, two problems remain:…

Focusing on the use of the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) with Project Follow Through evaluations, this report represents an extended discussion of the appropriateness of standardized tests for evaluation and policy research. First, the development of the MAT and its roots in the Army Alpha intelligence test are described in detail. The next…

Both on-level and out-of-level tests were administered to third and fifth grade children in order to compare the scaled scores of different level tests of the same testing program and to discover whether the relationship between levels might be distorted by ceiling or floor effects. Only reading tests were used in this study. The Stanford…