What change in scores over time represents a real improvement or decline in student ability?
For individuals pupils, you should remember that any test score is based on performance on one particular day and may be affected by a wide range of motivational or other influences. For instance, the pupil may have been distressed or upset by an incident at home earlier that day; he or she may feel disinclined to co-operate in the test for some reason or another. Also, being limited in length, the test itself can only ever be an approximate measure of pupils’ reasoning abilities. It is important therefore that the score is placed within a ‘confidence band’ so that you do not over-interpret small changes in standard scores. As a rule of thumb for the whole CAT test, or for one of the three batteries, there would have to be a change of 10 or more standard score points before you would say a pupil had shown a real change in their CAT score, rather than a change that could be simply attributable to the sort of factors described above. What about change in the mean scores for groups of pup
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- What do I do when a student with a disability asks me to provide extra time for her examinations or to arrange for a separate, quiet room in which to take them?
- What change in scores over time represents a real improvement or decline in student ability?
