The grade level equivalent score means which of the following?

Grade equivalent scores are norm-referenced, developmental scores. They are most frequently reported for achievement tests. Grade equivalent scores compare an individual's score to those of a norm group comprised of students attending the same grade in school as the individual whose score is being reported. For example, developmental scores may be expressed as 5.6 or 5-6 and interpreted as the average scores of fifth graders at the sixth month of fifth grade. Some grade equivalent scores are the mean score; others are the median score. The technical manual for the test indicates which measure of central tendency [i.e., mean or median] was used to determine grade equivalent scores reported. Grade equivalent scores are widely used in schools, but they are very difficult to interpret because they do not have good psychometric properties.

There are several guidelines for interpreting grade equivalent scores. Norm-referenced grade equivalent scores should not be confused with standards of acceptable or desirable grade-level performance. Grade equivalent scores are average scores. At any particular grade level, approximately 50% of the students will score above the grade equivalent score and 50% will score below it. For this reason, it is not reasonable for a school district to expect all of its students to be at or above grade level on a norm-referenced score. Norm-referenced scores indicate achievement relative to a particular norm group of students at a particular grade level. They do not indicate the level at which students should be performing.

A grade equivalent is not an estimate of the grade at which the student is working or should be placed. Students complete test items designed for the curriculum taught at the grade level in which they are enrolled. Grade equivalent scores that exceed the grade level of the student indicate that the student knows grade-level material better than most students at the grade level. For instance, the fourth-grade student who earns a grade equivalent score of 7.3 on a reading subtest understands fourth-grade reading material very well. The score does not mean that the student could or should be assigned seventh-grade reading material. The same principle applies to a fourth-grade student who earns a grade equivalent score of 2.1. The student likely has difficulty reading fourth-grade material. The score does not mean the student should be reading third-grade material or that the student can only read third-grade material.

Most nationally norm-standardized achievement tests provide grade equivalent scores for a series of tests. Grade equivalent scores on different subtests of the same test are not comparable because grade equivalent scores do not have equal units of measurement. That is, a grade equivalent score of 5.1 on a social studies subtest is not necessarily higher than a grade equivalent score of 4.2 on a science subtest. If students, teachers, or parents wish to compare scores on different subtests of the same achievement test or the same content areas from different achievement tests, they need to make the comparisons based on percentile ranks or standard scores.

Raw scores are the actual number of correct answers within a given test section, and are used to calculate the Grade Equivalent, Percentile, and Stanine results. They should not be used for any kind of comparison or statistical calculation since each test section varies in the difficulty and number of questions.

Grade equivalent scores represent the grade level [year and month separated by a decimal point] of a student's ability compared to the median score of students at the same academic level.

Scores that are above a student's grade level do not by themselves indicate proficiency to skip to the next grade level in the particular academic areas. These scores more likely show an understanding of only some of the concepts of that higher grade. Conversely, scores below a student's grade level may indicate a gap of understanding in those academic areas. Scores equal to a student's grade level are considered the minimum for grade level ability.

Percentile scores are equivalent to the percentage of students from the norm group who received lower scores than the student. For example, a student with a percentile score of 73 means that the student did better than approximately 73% of the students in the norm group. Percentile scores do not represent the number of questions answered correctly.

Percentiles are useful for comparing a student's performance over several sections of the test. However, because they are not measured on an equal scale of units, they are not suitable for most statistical calculations.

Derived from the term STAndard score from a NINE-unit scale, stanines are based on the mean of the norm group [who are given the score of 5] and a standard deviation of 2.0. Scores are determined by the amount of standard deviation from the norm group, in approximately one-half standard deviation increments. The following table lists the meaning of each score:

9 Highest Level6 Slightly Above Average3 Well Below Average8 High Level5 Average2 Low Level7 Well Above Average4 Slightly Below Average1 Lowest Level

What is an example of a grade equivalent score?

What is an age or grade equivalent score?

What does equivalent results mean?

What is the age equivalent?