Standardised scores
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Standardised scores
Hi my son's birthday is at the end of November, does anyone know will this affect his score compared to that of a child with a June/July birthday? Is it a significant difference?
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Sassie'sDad
- Posts: 459
- Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:36 pm
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Standardisation
Hi JD's Mom, The answer is broadly speaking, yes. For a detailed explanation of why raw scores are not meaningful and why the statistical processing of data is necessary before meaningful comparisons can be made take a look at the NFER website link, I think you will need to work through the explanations and some examples several times, if you are anything like me, before the penny drops. I learnt this more than 25 years ago in my Geography degree stats work and I still get muddled.
Here's the link http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/as ... sation.cfm
Hope it helps!
Here's the link http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/as ... sation.cfm
Hope it helps!
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Sassie'sDad
- Posts: 459
- Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:36 pm
- Location: Rugby
This quote might be a clearer explanation
Why is account taken of a pupil's age?
Nearly all pupils taking secondary selection tests during a particular school year are born between 1st September and 31st August of the following year, which means that the oldest pupils are very nearly 12 months older than the youngest. Almost invariably in ability and attainment tests, older pupils achieve slightly higher raw scores than younger pupils. In order not to disadvantage pupils who were born in, say, June, July or August rather than the previous September or October, the tests should, in theory, be taken by the pupils when they reach a particular exact age, e.g. 10 years 8 months. However, this is completely impractical, as it would take a full 12 months to administer the 11+ tests for a typical year group. So, instead, an allowance is included in the standardised scores that enables all the pupils to take the test on the same day, eliminating the age differential. Consequently, there is no advantage or disadvantage according to the month of birth. In effect, pupils are only being compared with other pupils of exactly the same age as themselves (measured to the nearest month).
Nearly all pupils taking secondary selection tests during a particular school year are born between 1st September and 31st August of the following year, which means that the oldest pupils are very nearly 12 months older than the youngest. Almost invariably in ability and attainment tests, older pupils achieve slightly higher raw scores than younger pupils. In order not to disadvantage pupils who were born in, say, June, July or August rather than the previous September or October, the tests should, in theory, be taken by the pupils when they reach a particular exact age, e.g. 10 years 8 months. However, this is completely impractical, as it would take a full 12 months to administer the 11+ tests for a typical year group. So, instead, an allowance is included in the standardised scores that enables all the pupils to take the test on the same day, eliminating the age differential. Consequently, there is no advantage or disadvantage according to the month of birth. In effect, pupils are only being compared with other pupils of exactly the same age as themselves (measured to the nearest month).
standardised scores
All the same I think the general perception is that if you have a clever child with a summer birthday the system works really well for you. We were glad to find standardisation exists because we planned for all of ours to be August birthdays because we did not want them to spend all their time at primary school bored out oftheir minds!
Sadly they still were but at least we tried!
Now on the third laborious trudge through the ancient ******* egyptians!!
Sadly they still were but at least we tried!
Now on the third laborious trudge through the ancient ******* egyptians!!
