Standardized results (end of year tests) on school reports

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browneyedgirl
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri May 28, 2010 11:34 am

Standardized results (end of year tests) on school reports

Post by browneyedgirl »

Hi all,

I really can't get my head around this and wondered if someone with more knowledge/experience could explain standardized tests to me at secondary level?

My DD is Year 8 at an Independent School (not sure if that's relevant as my question may be applicable to all secondary schools) I only have one DD so limited experience but it seems to feature at GCSE albeit could be for different reasons.

When she completes her end of year exams these marks are standardized on her end of year report. Can anyone explain to me what this standardization is for? I thought I understood it for 11+ purposes in that its standardized for age (e.g. she is August birthday so it is how she performs against other August birthdays)

But school tell me this standardization is not for age but against her peers/level of difficulty of the exam. What I don't understand is if they set the exam (therefore difficulty level) doesn't her raw/actual mark tell us that? So if she was say 15th in the year with her score isn't that mark where she is? Why does it have to change on her report?

befuddled browneyedgirl
KB
Posts: 3030
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Re: Standardized results (end of year tests) on school repor

Post by KB »

Common sense would lead one to that conclusion :)

Haven't come across it before. One school I know does give year average but haven't come across this level of complexity before.

Only thing I can suggest is that it more easily allows for tracking of each child's progress, which is a good thing. However if the calculation is dependent on the progess of the whole year then any issues could be camouflaged by a whole year group having similarly poor progress.

I would day that as an additional measure it might be helpful but as you say, I can't see how it adds a huge amount if the school are already giving you position in year ( which many don't).
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