Answers to Grade Equivalents Self test: Question 1 is true. The others are false.
Explanations:
I. TRUE Because GE scores are developed by obtaining the mean or median performance at each of several grade levels on a test whose content covers the several grades, a student who scores above the grade in which he is enrolled has performed above average for students in his grade.
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2. FALSE A student can obtain a high GE score without being able to do the work of students at tile grade level indicated by his score. Tim may have obtained a 9.2 score by getting afl the items that were designed for grades 4, 5, 6, and 7 correct and may not have done particularly well on items designed for grades 8 and 9. if there were any.
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3. FALSE Often the GEs associated with high or low number-correct scores are obtained by extrapolation. It is possible that no ninth grader was ever tested with the test given Tim.
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4. FALSE Because Tim could have gotten a GE score of 9.2 by doing well on the easier or lower level items of the test, one cannot tell from these scores whether he could participate effectively with ninth graders or not.
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5. FALSE In most schools, reading is not taught in the ninth grade except perhaps for rededication of ineffective reading skills. So it does not make sense to consider putting Tim into ninth grade instruction in reading. Even if reading (or any subject for which a 9.2 GE was obtained) were taught at tile ninth grade, one would not know whether Tim should be put into a higher level of instruction without evaluating whether he had the prerequisite skills. The GE score cannot be relied on to indicate that ninth grade skills have been mastered.
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6. FALSE The standard deviations of GE scores vary from one subject to another. Tim's score of 9.2 on reading and 7.3 on arithmetic could be equal scores if one used another score scale such as percentiles. The difference between the two GE scores may be due to the fact that students tend to differ less within a grade on arithmetic than on reading. In addition, GE scores above a student's grade do not mean that he has really mastered skills beyond his own grade level.
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7. FALSE Because the standard deviations for different subjects differ, we cannot tell whether 9.2 in reading is relatively better than 7.3 in arithmetic, and neither necessarily implies that Tim is ahead of his own class.
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8. FALSE When GE scores have been extrapolate far above or below a student's grade level, it often occurs that even a single additional item correct can change a students GE score by more than a year. Tim may, simply have gotten one or two fewer items correct in spring than fill.
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9. FALSE The GE score is based on a mean. One dare not expect all students to be at or above grade level on GE scores. In a typical heterogeneous class, about half would obtain GE scores below grade level and half above grade level. Because only 30 percent of Mr. Brown's fifth graders got GE scores below 5.0. his students may be doing a little better than usual instead of worse.
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10. FALSE Another peculiar characteristic of GE scores is that the standard deviations get larger year by year. Suppose that a person (or a group average) is at and remains at a given percentile score, sav the 16th percentile (which is one standard deviation below the mean). This same percentile each year is translated into a lower GE each year because the standard deviation gets larger from year to year. This can leave the impression that a person (or group) is failing farther behind each year. Similarly, if a student (or group average) is above the mean and stays at that same relative position. he appears to get farther ahead every year in terms of GE scores. This is an illusion created by the GE score system.
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