1. The Stanford 9 is a standardized, norm-referenced test. What is a standardized test? What is a norm-referenced test?

• A standardized test is a test that contains the same questions administered under the same conditions for every student and is scored the same way. Students have roughly the same number of days of instruction prior to the test and are given exactly the same amount of time to complete the test. By standardizing testing conditions, comparisons can be made regardless of geographical location in the country. Not all standardized tests are norm-referenced tests.
• A norm-referenced test (NRT) compares each student’s achievement to the achievement of a representative national sample of public school students of the same age and grade (norming group) at a particular point in time (norming year). The Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (Stanford 9) was normed in 1995; and, therefore, reports test results in comparison to nationwide student achievement in 1995.

2. What is tested by the Stanford 9?

• READING: Assesses comprehension of three types of reading material: textural (non-fiction, general information); recreational (fiction); and functional (material encountered in everyday life, such as advertisements). Test questions tap various comprehension skills from the basic literal level up to the inferential and critical levels of reading comprehension.
• MATHEMATICS: Assesses the ability to compute as well as apply math concepts to problem-solving situations. Skills in interpreting a graph or a chart and in the application of principles of geometry, measurement and probability also are assessed.
• LANGUAGE: Assesses punctuation and capitalization skills and the ability to apply grammatical concepts correctly. Test questions also assess language expression, or the ability to manipulate words, phrases and clauses, and the ability to recognize correct, effective sentence structure and writing style.
• All test questions are in a multiple-choice format.

3. Who took the test?

• Across the state, 536,254 students in grades 3^rd through 12^th took the test during the months of March and April, up from 506,000 students last year. Limited English proficient students and special education students with individual education plans that do not require they take the test were exempted from the test.

4. What are percentile ranks?

At the school and district level, percentile ranks reflect the typical student's performance at the school or district compared to the norming group for that grade and subject area.

• If the school score is 39, it means that the average student at this school scored better than 39% of the students in the 1995 norming group. Schools with ranks reported near the 50^th percentile indicate that the typical student performance on those tests is about average when compared with other students of the same grade level.

At the individual student level, percentile ranks provide a comparison of a child’s performance to a national norming group composed of students in the same grade.

• A percentile rank of 58 means that a student scored better than 58% of the students in the 1995 norming group. As with school and district level scores, a child’s score reported near the 50^th percentile indicates that the child’s performance on that tests is about average when compared with other students of the same grade level.

5. What conclusions can be drawn from test results? How should parents use the data to evaluate their child and their child’s school?

• Parents will receive a copy of their child’s test scores in a Pupil Home Report. This report will provide the parent and student with a comprehensive view of the student’s test results in reading, language and mathematics, including national percentile ranks, raw scores, stanine scores and measures of grade equivalency.

Parents should realize that the Stanford 9 is only a single measure of their students’ academic achievement, and like all measures, has a degree of error inherent in it. For this reason, student results are presented as an achievement band, rather than a point. The achievement bands represent the range of possible scores expected from the student on any given day. Parents may be confident that their students’ scores fall somewhere within the range of these achievement bands.

• School-level test score information is available on the Arizona School Report Cards as well as in a statewide test report. School level scores will be reported in percentile ranks by grade and subject area. For example, a school with grades K-6 will report Reading, Language and Mathematics scores for each grade (3, 4, 5 and 6)—a total of 12 different scores. School percentile ranks should not be averaged into a single score for each grade across subject areas or for each subject area across grades. Percentile ranks are measures relative to a norming group (see question # 1). Averaging relative measures yields meaningless numbers.

In the same way that a student’s achievement should not be measured by a single score, a school should not be judged by NRT scores alone. In addition to test scores, the Arizona School Report Cards provide academic goals, instructional program information, and a variety of other data describing the school environment. Additional measures, such as the percent of students tested and academic growth throughout the course of the school year will be added in coming years, providing parents a more complete context in which to judge a school’s performance. Arizona School Report Cards are available from individual schools or on the Internet at http://www3.ade.state.az.us/srcs/