Scoring Terminology Used in Assessment in Special Education

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Scoring Terminology Used in Assessment in Special
Education

• NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of SPECIAL EDUCATION
  TEACHERS

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BASAL

• A basal is the starting point.
• It represents the level of mastery of a task
  below which the student would correctly answer
  all items on a test.

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Basal

• All of the items prior to the basal are not given
  to the student.
• These items are considered already correct.
• For example, on an IQ test, the examiner may
  start with Question 14 because of the age of the
  child. That is the basal.
• Here, the student starts with credit given for
  the first 13 questions.

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CEILING

• Once the basal is determined, the examiner will
  administer until the student reaches a ceiling.
• The ceiling is the point where the student has
  made a predetermined number of errors and
  therefore stops administering all other items on
  this test because it is assumed that the student
  will continue to get the answers wrong.

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Ceiling

• The ceiling is the ending point.
• It represents the level of mastery of a task
  above which the student would incorrectly answer
  all future items on a test.
• For example, if on a spelling test a child got
  numbers 15 to 24 wrong, and the ceiling is 10
  incorrect in a row, this means that the examiner
  would stop administering spelling words to the
  child because the ceiling has been obtained.

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RAW SCORES

• When you administer any test, the first step in
  scoring almost always will be to calculate the
  number of correct items the student obtained.
• For example, if a student took a 20-question
  spelling test in your class, the first thing you
  would do is determine how many words the student
  spelled correctly.
• This score is known as the raw score.
• The raw score normally indicates the number of
  items correctly answered on a given test. In
  almost all cases, it is the first score a teacher
  obtains when interpreting data.

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Raw Scores

• A raw score is a test score that has not been
  weighted, transformed, or statistically
  manipulated.
• Now, in general, raw scores by themselves mean
  very little.
• For example, suppose the student in your class
  got 18 out of 20 correct on the spelling test.
• The number 18 has no real meaning.
• What is important is what you do with the 18.
• For example, most teachers would say the student
  got 18 out of 20 and turn it into a percentage
  indicating that the student got 90 (18/20 is
  90) on this test.

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STANDARD SCORES

• A standard score is a score that has been
  transformed to fit a normal curve, with a mean
  and standard deviation that remain the same
  across ages.
• Normally, standard scores have a mean of 100 and
  a standard deviation of 15.

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Standard Scores

• Perhaps the most well-known version of the
  standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard
  deviation of 15 is the Wechsler Intelligence
  Scales.
• Using this scoring system, a child with a
  standard score of 115 would be 1 standard
  deviation above the mean, whereas a child with a
  standard score of 85 would be 1 standard
  deviation below the mean.
• Also, the percentage of scores between a standard
  score of 85 and 115 is 68.

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Standard Scores

• Often, when doing assessment, you will have to
  tell parents and administrators the standard
  scores the child received on the given test and
  the appropriate classification that they
  represent.

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STANDARD SCORE CLASSIFICATION

• STANDARD SCORE CLASSIFICATION
• Less than 70 Developmentally Delay
  7079 Well Below Average
• 8089 Low Average
• 90109 Average
• 110119 High Average
• 120129 Superior
• 130 and higher Very Superior

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PERCENTILE RANKS (PERCENTILES)

• A percentile rank (often referred to as a
  percentile) is a score indicating the percentage
  of people or scores that occur at or below a
  given score.
• For example, if you have a percentile rank of 75
  in a class, this means that you did as well as or
  better than 75 of the students in the class.
• A percentile rank of 16 means that you scored as
  well as or better than only 16 of the
  population.

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Percentile Rank

• Percentile ranks range from the lowest (1st
  percentile) to the highest (99th percentile).
• The 50th percentile normally signifies the
  average ranking or average performance.
• Knowing that a child had a percentile rank of 97
  on a test would tell you that he is exceptional
  in this testing area, yet, knowing that he got a
  percentile rank of 7 would tell you that this is
  an area of weakness.

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Importance of PR

• In assessment, percentile ranks are very
  important because they indicate how well a child
  did when compared to the norms on a test.

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STANINES

• A stanine, an abbreviation for standard nines, is
  a type of standard score that has a mean of 5 and
  a standard deviation of 2.
• Stanine scores can range from 1 to 9.

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Stanines

• A stanine of 7 is 1 standard deviation above the
  mean (5 2).
• A stanine of 9 is 2 standard deviations above the
  mean (5 2 2).
• Conversely, a stanine of 3 is 1 standard
  deviation below the mean (5 2)
• A stanine of 1 is two standard deviations below
  the mean (5 2 2).

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AGE EQUIVALENT SCORES

• An age equivalent is a very general score that is
  used to compare the performance of children at
  the same age with one another.
• It is the estimated age level that corresponds to
  a given score.
• Age equivalent scores are almost always given in
  years and months.
• For example, a child who gets an age equivalent
  score of 11-5 is performing as well as the
  average 11 year, 5 month old child.

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GRADE EQUIVALENT SCORES

• A grade equivalent is a very general score that
  is used to compare the performance of children in
  the same grade with one another.
• It is the estimated grade level that corresponds
  to a given score.
• Grade equivalent scores are almost always given
  in years and months in school.
• For example, a child who gets a grade equivalent
  score of 3.5 is performing as well as the average
  student in the 3rd grade, 5th month.