- Standardized and other formal assessments
the fourth grade test as a sixth grade student is expected to perform. Testing companies calculate grade equivalents
by giving one test to several grade levels. For example a test designed for fourth graders would also be given to third
and fifth graders. The raw scores are plotted and a trend line is established and this is used to establish the grade
equivalents. Note that in Error: Reference source not found the trend line extends beyond the grades levels actually
tested so a grade equivalent above 5.0 or below 3.0 is based solely on the estimated trend lines.
Exhibit 24: Using trend lines to estimate grade equivalent
scoresGrade equivalent scores also assume that the subject matter that is being tested is emphasized at each grade
level to the same amount and that mastery of the content accumulates at a mostly constant rate (Popham, 2005).
Many testing experts warn that grade equivalent scores should be interpreted with considerable skepticism and that
parents often have serious misconceptions about grade equivalent scores. Parents of high achieving students may
have an inflated sense of what their child’s levels of achievement.
Issues with standardized tests .....................................................................................................................
Many people have very strong views about the role of standardized tests in education. Some believe they provide
an unbiased way to determine an individual’s cognitive skills as well as the quality of a school or district. Others
believe that scores from standardized tests are capricious, do not represent what students know, and are misleading
when used for accountability purposes. Many educational psychologists and testing experts have nuanced views
and make distinctions between the information standardized tests can provide about students’ performances and
how the tests results are interpreted and used. In this nuanced view, many of the problems associated with
standardized tests arise from their high stakes use such as using the performance on one test to determine selection
into a program, graduation, or licensure, or judging a school as high vs low performing.
Are standardized tests biased?
In a multicultural society one crucial question is: Are standardized tests biased against certain social class,
racial, or ethnic groups? This question is much more complicated than it seems because bias has a variety of