Susan C. Whiston

“problem with age and grade equivalent scores is that instruments will vary in
the scoring. One publisher’s test could give a child a sixth grade, eighth month score (6.8),
and another publisher’s instrument could result in a score of 7.1. Although the two scores
may be related to small differences between the instruments, consumers of the scores may
have very different interpretations of scores that are really not all that discrepant. Another
problem with age or grade equivalent scores is that teachers or administrators may expect
all students to perform at or above their respective age or grade level. For example, teachers have been reprimanded because students have had scores below grade level.
These misconceptions fail to take into account that the instruments are norm-referenced;
thus, the expectations are that 50% of the students will fall above the appropriate age or grade
score and 50% will fall below this score. Therefore, in most classrooms, expecting all students
to fall above the mean is unrealistic as well as inappropriate given norm-referenced testing.
36 Section I Principles of Assessment
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― Susan C. Whiston, Principles and Applications of Assessment in Counseling