Standardized Testing Video Series

The following video series has been created by Incarnation Catholic School to help teachers and families to interpret standardized test scores.

The following terms are important as you work to interpret the scores of your child.

-National Percentile Ranking (NPR)

A National Percentile Ranking (NPR) is not the same thing as a letter grade or percentage score used in classroom settings. For example, a 65% on a science test administered by your child's classroom teacher is much different than scoring in the 65th National Percentile Ranking. Scoring a 65% on a classroom assignment means that your son/daughter only successfully got 65% of the items correct. A National Percentile Ranking of 65, though, means that your son/daughter scored better than 65% of the other students who took the same test at the same time. An average NPR score is around the 50th NPR. An NPR score of 50 would mean that your son/daughter is progressing at the typical pace of a student from that particular grade level. 

-National Stanine (NS)

A National Stanine is similar to NPR in that it compares the performance of your child against the performance of all of the other students who took the same test at the same time. Instead of using a range of 1 - 99, though, the National Stanine is ranged from 1 - 9 and can help you to further interpret your child's NPR. National Stanine's from 1 - 3 indicate performance that is below average, 4 -6 is average, and 7 - 9 is above average. 

-Grade Equivalent (GE)

One of the two new forms that we have decided to include this year involve a longitudinal view of your child's progress over the past three years (2nd graders will not have longitudinal data as this is the first year they took the test; 3rd graders will only have two years of data). This form will include both the NPR scores and a Grade Equivalent (GE) mark. A Grade Equivalent is a measure of your child's abilities in terms of grade level and month of the school year. So, for a 5th grader who receives a GE of 5.7 for a domain means that he/she scored like a student is in the seventh month of 5th grade. However, a 5th grader who receives a GE of 10.8 (the eighth month of sophomore year) should not be expected to jump from 5th to 10th grade. A GE score that is higher than the current grade level of your child (10.8 for a 5th grader) indicates that your son/daughter scored as well as a sophomore in the eighth month of school would have scored on the 5th grade exam. For this longitudinal form, look for an upward line (from left to right) and at least one GE growth for each point on the graph. A downward line may indicate the need for remediation.

-Percent Correct

The second of the two new forms shows the percent correct for each area on the test. This aligns with a traditional understanding of academic scores and is the closest to feedback received on classroom level assignments. Simply, this form will let you know how the percentage of items your child answered correctly for each domain of the test. 

The videos should help to explain the various reports, the data represented there, as well as a demonstration as to how to interpret specific results.

If at any time you have questions about the videos or need help in interpreting your child's scores, please contact your Incarnation Catholic School.

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