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Spring 2002

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Score Explanations

N
The number of students with valid test scores for the content area reported. This is the number of students used for calculating the average scores reported.

Performance Standards
Performance standards identify levels of student achievement based on a demonstrated degree of mastery of the academic content standards tested. California uses five performance standards for its California Standards Tests:

  • Advanced performance in relation to the academic content standards tested
  • Proficient performance in relation to the academic content standards tested
  • Basic performance in relation to the academic content standards tested
  • Below Basic performance in relation to the academic content standards tested
  • Far-Below Basic performance in relation to the academic content standards tested

The number and percent of students with California Standards Test scores for English-language arts, mathematics, science and history-social science at each performance standard are reported for schools, districts, counties, and the state. At grades 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8 through 11, the performance standards are based only on the multiple-choice component of the standards tests. At Grades 4 and 7, the 2002 writing test results are included in the performance standards.

The performance standards for each grade and content area are based on scaled scores that range between approximately 200 and 500. The score dividing the basic scores from below-basic is 300 for every grade and content area. The score dividing basic scores from proficient scores is 350 for every grade and content area. Tables that include the score range for each grade level, content area, and academic performance (achievement) standard are at www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/star/.

Performance standards have not been adopted and are not reported for the California Integrated Science Standards Tests.

Percentile Ranks
A percentile rank is the percent of people in the norming sample who had scores less than or equal to a student's score. A student with a reading comprehension score at the 60th percentile scored as well or better than 60 percent of the students in the norming groups.

NPR (National Percentile Rank) of the "Average" Student
There is no provision for producing group level, school or district percentile ranks. The percentile ranks of individual students cannot be used to produce an average percentile rank for a group, because percentile ranks cannot be added or averaged across students. The national percentile rank for the "average" student is an arithmetically derived score that may not equal a score for any student in the group. This is why the score is attributed to a hypothetical student.

RPR of the "Average" Student
RPRs of the "Average" Student for the SABE/2 are calculated in the same way that NPRs are calculated for the Stanford 9.

% Scoring Above the 75th NPR, % Scoring At or Above the 50th NPR, and % Scoring Above the 25th NPR
These scores correspond to the percent of students in the school, district, county, or state with scores corresponding to those of students in the top quarter of the 1995 national sample (above 75th NPR), in the top half of the 1995 national sample (at or above the 50th NPR), and in the top three-quarters of the 1995 national sample (above the 25th NPR). The percent of students scoring above each level is calculated by counting the number of students with scores above a particular NPR (76th NPR and higher) and dividing by the total number of students tested. Note that the percent of students scoring at or above the 50th NPR is a subset of students scoring above the 25th NPR, and the percent of students scoring above the 75th NPR is a subset of the group scoring at or above the 50th NPR. The percent of students scoring at or above the 50th NPR is sometimes referred to as the percent of students scoring at or above grade level. To obtain the percent of students in the school, district, county or state that had scores in the lowest quarter of the national sample subtract the percent scoring above the 25th NPR from 100.

% Scoring Above the 75th RP, % Scoring Above the 50th RP, and % Scoring Above the 25th RP
These scores are similar to the NPR scores, except that the comparison group is Spanish-speaking students in Spanish bilingual classes.

Mean Scaled Score
Raw scores identify the number of questions answered correctly on a test or sub-test. Score tables are used to convert raw scores to scaled scores. A scaled score takes differences in the difficulty of test forms into account. Scaled scores are useful for reporting changes over time. The Stanford 9 provides results in terms of scaled scores for individual students and mean or average scaled scores for groups of students. Scaled scores are also reported for the California Standards Tests and the SABE/2 for individual students and mean or average scaled scores for groups of students. Stanford 9 scaled scores cannot be compared with the California Standards Tests or SABE/2 scaled scores. Scaled scores should also not be used to compare two different content areas, such as reading and mathematics, on the same test.

Scaled scores for individual students or groups of students within each content area should increase each year on the Stanford 9 and SABE/2, because the tests use a continuous scale from the lowest to the highest grade levels of the tests. The California Standards Tests scaled scores may not increase from year to year, because each grade and content area is scaled independently rather than using a continuous scale from the lowest to the highest grade.

% Of Enrollment
Schools submitted student information for every student enrolled on the first day the Stanford 9 and California Standards Tests were administered. The percentage of enrollment is the number of students with valid test scores divided by the number of students enrolled on the first day of testing. In some instances the percentage may exceed 100% due to students who enrolled in a school after the first day of testing who were tested with subtests administered after they enrolled.