Convenience and Uniformity in Reporting Norms for School Tests

Abstract

The desirability of securing some uniform procedure for scal ing the achievements of pupils in school tests is evidenced by the recent attempts and suggestions which have been made by several authors. Reference may be made to the work of McCall,1 Pintner,2 Buckingham,3 and Buckingham and Monroe.4 These very recent papers indicate the extent to which trained workers in this field realize the necessity for some definite conventions. For the larger number of individuals without much training, who are using these tests in practical work, there is even more neces sity for definite agreement. An association such as this journal represents could hardly fulfil its function better than in furthering this attempt to secure uniformity and order, in a situation which as it now exists is chaotic. At present a score of twelve in one test means the same level of achievement as fifteen, thirty-five, or seventy-one in another test. Even after we have transmuted from the crude scores to equivalent scores, there is again no uniformity. A score of fifty may mean the median achievement of unselected twelve-year-olds, as in McCall's plan, or the median achievement of an unselected group of any age as in Pintner's procedure, or the achievement of a particular mental age as in the method of Monroe and Buckingham. We must work for an agreement whereby after the transition has been made from the crude score to the equivalent score, the latter will have an obvious meaning. This meaning must be