What Do Test Scores Really Mean?

By Dr. Christine Davidson

My fifth-grade son scored 2.6 grade equivalency on a reading test. What does this mean?
How do I know if he is just a late bloomer or might have a learning disability? How do I
know if I am expecting too much or too little of him? If he is performing three grades below
grade level, will he ever catch up?
This loaded question is one I receive on a daily basis. The following Q & A and tips will
provide you with solid answers to commonly asked questions.
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Q. What do test scores mean and what do they measure?
As a former teacher and school administrator, a licensed educational psychologist and an
educational expert, I receive these questions every day. For a parent to determine if a child
is progressing at an appropriate rate, its important to first understand tests and how results
are reported. Is a fifth-grade student performing within the average range if his reading test
score is 2.6?
First, lets talk about what tests measure. A variety of tests for measuring progress are
available, but tests measure different things in varying ways. For example, one test may
purport to measure reading ability, but it may more accurately measure a childs sight-word
reading skills, i.e., his ability to read words such as cat, have, house. There are tests that
measure reading fluency or how many words per minute the child can accurately read. Still
others measure reading comprehension or test the students ability to answer a series of
multiple-choice questions and open-ended wh- questions. Not surprisingly, results of these
tests vary widely.
TIP 1: To accurately evaluate your childs scores, you need to know which tests were used
and what those tests measure. For information about thousands of tests, go to Testlink from
the Educational Testing Service (ETS) at www.ets.org.
Q. How can I understand and track my childs test scores?
Just as you can track your childs physical growth using a measuring tape and bathroom
scale, tests can be used to measure your childs academic growth and change. Most school
districts have standardized achievement tests, which give parents information about how
well schools are performing in educating their children.
Standardized achievement tests measure reading, math, and written expression skills.
Learning to understand test scores is as simple as understanding how to measure and
describe relationships between variables using numbers. For example, you can look at your
monthly gasoline cost and determine how much you spent, on an average day, each day
during that month. Then, you can use that information to determine whether it would be
worthwhile to carpool, ride your bike more often, or continue your current driving pattern. If
you decide to ride your bike two days per week, you can measure change by comparing
your cars gas usage and cost for the previous months versus future months. In a similar

way, knowledge about test scores will help you assess your childs progress or lack of
progress.

Bell-Shaped Curve

Lets start with the term Grade Equivalent (GE). The raw score is the number of correct
answers on a test and is converted into a grade-equivalent score. The grade-equivalent
score is the grade level of students who, on the average, obtain that same raw score. For
example, if a third-grade child receives a raw score of 10 points, and children near the end
of first grade on average earn a raw score of 10 points, the third-grade child is assigned a
GE score of 1.9 or the ninth month of first grade.
However, this doesnt mean you can conclude that the third-grade child has math skills that
are identical to those of a student at the 1.9 grade level. This child may have completed
addition with regrouping problems and single-digit multiplication problems but did not
answer any subtraction problems. It is more accurate to say that the child demonstrated
some second- and third-grade math skills, beyond those expected for a first-grade child, but
overall performed on the average as children at the end of first grade performed. So, grade
equivalents provide an assessment of overall, approximate, grade-level achievement, but
one must analyze the errors and patterns to fully understand the childs strengths and skill
deficiencies.
Next, lets look at the term average. One-half of all children completing a given test will
score between the 25th and 75th percentile, which is considered the average percentile
range. Percentile scores or ranks show a more familiar format of how the child scored when
compared to other children at the same age or grade. If a child scores at the 16th percentile,
it means that 84 percent of the children tested scored higher than that child.
Two-thirds (or 68 percent) of all children tested will score within the average range on the
bell-shaped curve. Standard Scores (SS) have an average, or mean, of 100. The raw score,
or number correct, is converted to a Standard Score using charts and tables provided with
each test. Standard Scores of 85115 are generally considered average. When your child is
tested with standardized tests, it is helpful to draw a bell curve and arrange your childs
scores along the Standard Score axis, to see how the scores have changed from previous
test data. Declining scores are a warning that some intervention is needed.
TIP 2: Chart your childs academic scores to determine growth or regression. You can use
grade equivalents, percentile ranks, and standard scores. Make sure you are comparing the

same tests and/or test equivalencies, or that the tests you are comparing measure the
same information.
Q. What is a late bloomer, and what does the research say about catching up?
The term late bloomer was created about thirty years ago and was an endearing term for a
child who mastered reading skills at a slower pace than did his or her peers. The idea was
that children would bloom when they were ready, or their brains would mature, which may
be later than their peers matured. As a teacher in the early 1980s, this common view was a
reasonable basis for teachers to have patience with slow readers and justified the common
practice of delaying a learning disability diagnosis until it was severe (Lyon et al., 2001).
Over the years, parents and teachers have asked, Do struggling readers ever really catch
up? The research has proven that late bloomers are rare, that they usually wilt, and that
skill deficits consistently prevent them from blooming as readers (Juel, 1988; Francis et al.,
1996, Shaywitz et al., 1999). In fact, the research showed that there is about a 90 percent
chance that a poor reader in first grade will remain a poor reader.
Specifically, the probability that a child who was a poor reader in first grade would remain a
poor reader in fourth grade was .88 and the probability that an average reader in first grade
would become a poor reader in fourth grade was .12. The probability also showed that an
average first-grade reader would remain an average fourth-grade reader was .87 and the
average poor first-grade reader would become an average fourth-grade reader was .13
(Juel, 1988).
TIP 3: Dont fall for the late bloomer, feel good theory. The research clearly proves that
struggling students do not catch up and actually wilt.
Q. What is a learning disability?
According to Education Code Section 56337 (a), a Specific Learning Disability, as defined in
paragraph (30) of Section 1401 of Title 20 of the United States Code, is a disorder in one or
more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language,
spoken or written, which may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak,
read, write, spell or perform math calculations. A student is recognized as having a Specific
Learning Disability (SLD) when he or she exhibits a significant discrepancy (18 points or
more) between his or her Intellectual Quotient (IQ) score and academic standard scores in
reading, reading comprehension, math, math reasoning, written language, listening
comprehension, and oral expression.
The childs academic discrepancies must also be related to one or more of the following
processing disorders:
Attentionthe ability to focus and maintain attention
Auditory Processingthe perception and use of auditory stimuli
Visual Processinguse of visual stimuli in learning or using feedback from the eyes to
coordinate the movement of the body, i.e., copying from the board or book in a timely
manner
Associationlong-term memory skills
Conceptualizationusing information logically, such as in conclusions, judgment,
inferences, and academic reasoning skills

Look at your childs test scores that you charted above. A common scenario for a learning
disabled child is high standard scores in one subject area such as math (average are 85
115 or better) but low scores in other core subject areas such as reading or language arts
(lower than 85). Students usually perform in one or more subject areas commensurate with
their IQ but much lower in the subject in which they have a learning disability.
TIP 4: Gather information regarding your childs performance on standardized test scores,
report cards, and classroom performance. Identify the strengths and weaknesses and
discrepancies in your childs scores and performance.
Q. Where do I go to determine if my child has a learning disability?
If the public school agrees that your child may have a disability, they must evaluate your
child at no cost to you. The public school may disagree with your analysis, however, and
refuse to evaluate your child. If so, the school must notify you of this refusal-to-test
decision in writing.
If the school district refuses to evaluate your child, you should do two things immediately:
1. Ask the school district for information about their special education policies and about
parents rights to disagree with the decision made by the school district.
2. Get in touch with the Parent Training and Information (PTI) Center by contacting the
National Information Center for Handicapped Children and Youth (NICHCY) at
http://www.nichcy@fhi360.org.
TIP 5: Testing to determine if your child has a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) is free.
Parents need only request in writing that they suspect their child has a Specific Learning
Disability. The school district must then conduct an evaluation to determine if the child has
a learning disability.

Dr. Chris Davidson is a licensed educational psychologist, educator, lecturer, author, parent
and student advocate. Her approach is based upon a solid foundation in child development,
educational assessment and consultation, learning differences, special education laws, and
teamwork. Dr. Davidson received her B.S. in elementary education from Rutgers University,
her masters degree in counseling from California State University Long Beach, and her
Ed.D. from the University of LaVerne in educational management. www.Drdavidson.com

Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in
the October 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, the family education magazine.
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