Excelling Teaching & Learning : S.I.M. & A.R. : Test Results : What is Stanford 9

Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (SAT 9)

Purpose

The Stanford 9 is a Norm Referenced Test (NRT) which compares each student's performance on the test to the performance of a representative sample of public school students of the same age and grade. The administration of the Stanford 9 is mandated by the state legislature. The Stanford 9 tells how our students compare to a national sample taking the test. The Stanford 9 was normed in 1995 and, therefore, reports test results in comparison to nationwide student achievement in 1995. The content of NRT's is broad and is not limited to the Arizona Standards, as is the AIMS.

In the year 2002, the Stanford 9 was administered to all Arizona students in grades 2-9.

The Stanford 9 assesses student performance in:

• READING: Assesses comprehension of three types of reading material: textual (non-fiction, general information); recreational (fiction); and functional (material encountered in everyday life, such as advertisements). Test questions tap various comprehension skills from the basic literal level up to the inferential and critical levels of reading comprehension.
• MATHEMATICS: Assesses the ability to compute as well as apply math concepts to problem-solving situations. Skills in interpreting a graph or a chart and in the application of principles of geometry, measurement and probability also are assessed.
• LANGUAGE: Assesses punctuation and capitalization skills and the ability to apply grammatical concepts correctly. Test questions also assess language expression, or the ability to manipulate words, phrases and clauses, and the ability to recognize correct, effective sentence structure and writing style.

Using Stanford 9 Data

Parents receive a copy of their child's test scores in the Pupil Home Report. This report provides the parent and student with a comprehensive view of the student's test performance in reading, language and mathematics, including national percentile ranks, raw scores, stanine scores and measures of grade equivalency.

Click here for a view of the relation between percentile, stanine and NCE.

The reports also include a grade equivalency. This grade equivalency score is probably the most frequently misunderstood of the scores. If a second grade student achieved a grade equivalent of 4.2, this does not mean that this student has mastered fourth grade subject material. Instead, the grade equivalency score means that if a fourth grade student (in the second month of school) took the second grade Stanford test, the fourth grade student's score would be the same as the score that the second grade student achieved.

Results on the Stanford 9 are only a single measure of student academic achievement and, like all measures, has a degree of error inherent in it. For this reason, student results are presented as an achievement band, rather than a point. The achievement bands represent the range of possible scores expected from the student on any given day. Parents may be confident that their students' scores fall somewhere within the range of the achievement bands indicated on the Pupil Home Report.

In addition to comparing a student's performance to national norms, the Stanford also provides useful information to the teacher, principal and district. This information is used to assess instructional and curricular issues, as well as point out disparities in the performance of various groupings of students.

Stanford 9 Results for Scottsdale Unified School District

Stanford 9 Results for State of Arizona