What is the background to ISA norming?
The norming of the ISA consists in the results we get from each administration. Each school’s aggregated results are compared on the school report with the results of all the other schools that took the ISA on the same occasion (and with sub-groups from the same large group). While the same test forms will be used in October and the following February, each group of test-takers is treated as a separate norming group. For most schools following a northern hemisphere timetable, one would expect the performance of students in February to be, on average, stronger than that in October, though for the older students the differences are likely to be quite small. In some other assessments – for example, the TORCH tests of reading comprehension and the IOWAs – the test is administered initially and then at intervals (usually every few years) to a large sample of students, and normative results generated, so that subsequent users of the test have a standard reference point. This is necessary whe
