Bethel Christian School

As a Bethel parent, you know that the students take an annual battery of standardized tests. This web page will help you gain a clear understanding of your child's Stanford Achievement Tests Series, Tenth Edition report. Our school administration and the faculty review the test results carefully, and we wish for you to understand them as well. The reports will give valuable information about your child's academic strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, we offer the following explanation for the categories and numbers found on your child's score report.

Click here to view the results of 2009-10 tests

REPORT DIVISION
The report is divided into three general parts: the upper left (percentile ranks, stanines, and grade equivalents), the upper right (percentile bands), and the bottom (content clusters). These sections present much of the same types of information, but they do so in different formats and with varying degrees of precision.

UPPER LEFT

Number of items: The number of questions on a particular test or sub-test of the Stanford Achievement Test.

Raw Score: The number of correct answers on a particular test or sub-test.

Scaled Score: A statistical conversion of the raw score.

Natl PR-S: National percentile rank and stanine. Percentile ranks represent a nationwide grouping of students into ranks from one (the lowest) to 99 (the highest), with 50th percentile being the average. Stanines represent a nationwide grouping into nine groups from one (the lowest) to nine (the highest), with 4th through 6th being average.

AACS PR-S: Compares the student's scores to results of students attending other member schools of the American Association of Christian Schools. 

Grade Equiv: Stands for grade equivalent. The score is often misunderstood and misused since some assume that the score reflects their child is working on that particular grade level. In reality, it means that the average student on the indicated grade level would have made the score your child made on that particular sub-test. For example, a fifth grade student might score 9.6 (ninth grade, sixth month) on a math sub-test. This does not translate into his ability to skip four grade levels of math and resume his math in the ninth grade. It does mean that the average ninth grade student would have made the same grade your child did on that part of the fifth grade achievement test. Therefore, it is never recommended that a student be promoted to another grade beyond his age group simply on the basis of test scores.

AAC Range: Bethel students in the first, third, fifth, and seventh grades also take the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test. This test assesses verbal and noverbal reasoning abilities realted to success in school. Tasks such as detecting likenesses and differences, recalling words and numbers, defining words, following directions, classifying, establishing sequence, solving math problems, and completing analogies are included in the OLSAT. All of these have been shown to be valid measures of an individual's ability to reason logically.

UPPER RIGHT
National percentile bands represent the range of achievement your child demonstrated, whereas a percentile rank represents a specific point on the scale.

FINAL WORD
Please keep in mind that achievement and school ability tests are only one measure of a student's academic progress. Class grades, general alertness and response, and persoanl oberservation by parents and teachers are also valid indicators of learning ability and academic achievement. Parents should not be alarmed if their child doesn't perform to their expectations.

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