Basic Data & Value-Added Glossary of Terms

ABOVE: Classification of performance assigned to a school that is producing growth significantly above expected levels.

ACADEMIC PROGRESS: Amount of growth a student experiences during one academic year. A meaningful interpretation of a growth score is realized when it is measured against some standard.

ACHIEVEMENT SUBGROUPS (SCHOOL DIAGNOSTIC SCREEN): Academic classifications of student groups based on where their prior achievement level rank them in the test pool. The fifth achievement subgroup in the school diagnostic screen represents the top 20 percent of students, as indicated by where their prior achievement level places them in the distribution of their grade-level peers in the same test pool. The first achievement subgroup represents the lowest ranking 20 percent of students, based on their prior achievement levels.

ACHIEVEMENT TESTS: Tests measuring what students know and are able to do.

AGGREGATE: Data that reflect properties of a group.

BELL CURVE: A frequency distribution of a given performance (e.g., test scores) that exhibits the tendency that most performances cluster toward the mean value with noticeably decreasing frequencies observed as values move away from the mean in both directions.

BELOW: Classification of performance assigned to a school that is producing growth significantly below expected levels.

BOX-and-WHISKER PLOT: A visual representation of how data are distributed and of how much variation exists in those data.

COHORT: A group or a division of people or items. An example of a "cohort" of students is the group of all students in a school at a particular grade level. 21

CORRELATION: Statistical measure of the relationship between two variables.

CRITERION-REFERENCED TESTS: Assessments that measure students' performances against a particular set of standards or targets.

CUMULATIVE GAIN INDEX: A way of standardizing school effects across subjects, grades and schools. The index is calculated by dividing the school effect by its associated standard error.

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA: Type of data that describes the person or sample.

DIAGNOSTIC REPORTS: Value-added reports divided into subgroups based on prior achievement levels of students. Typically, subgroups are divided into quintile or into a state's proficiency categories.

DISAGGREGATE DATA: Data broken down into subgroups.

EVAAS® (EDUCATIONAL VALUE-ADDED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM): The SAS Institute's trademarked name for value-added analysis.

FORMATIVE DATA: Ongoing diagnostic assessment used to modify instruction.

FREQUENCY: How many times a particular data point appears in a data set.

GAIN PATTERN: Pattern seen in the graphic depiction of a school diagnostic report. Gain patterns specify the achievement subgroups that have benefited most/least from instruction.

GROWTH STANDARD: The standard for the amount of growth a student is expected to achieve in a given year.

J CURVE: The J-Curve represents the theoretical distribution of students in an education system where all students have achieved proficiency.

LONGITUDINAL DATA: Data collected and linked over time.

MEAN: Arithmetic average.

MEAN PREDICTED SCORE: Average predicted score for a particular group of students based on their prior achievement and the relationships that exist between the assessments they have taken.

MEAN SCORE PERCENTILE: Percentile ranking of the average score in a population of students.

MEAN PREDICTED SCORE PERCENTILE: Percentile ranking of the average predicted score in a population of students.

MEAN STUDENT SCORE: Average observed score for a particular group of students.

MEDIAN: The middle score when scores are ordered from lowest to highest.

MODE: Score that occurs most frequently.

MULTIVARIATE MODEL: Statistical model that uses multiple predictor variables' to estimate independent effects on an outcome variable. EVAAS employs a multivariate longitudinal model for estimating school influences on student learning. All test scores in a student's test history serve as the predictor variables in this model. N: Symbol that typically conveys the number of students included in a statistical analysis. In the predicted mean school value-added report, the "N” indicates the number of students for whom we could connect this year's record with last year's record.

NCE (NORMAL CURVE EQUIVALENT): Normal Curve Equivalent is a unit of achievement measurement often used when there is a need to compare achievement across time for groups of students. The mean of this scale is 50 and its standard deviation is 20.06. The NCE scale is similar to percentile ranks in that the range of possible scores is from 1 to 99. The key difference between percentile ranks and NCE units is that the latter is an equal interval scale. This means that a 5 NCE unit change anywhere on that scale is an equivalent amount, which is not the case with percentile ranks. This property of the NCE scale that makes suitable for comparing achievement levels across time for groups of students.

NDD (NOT DETECTABLY DIFFERENT): A classification of performance assigned to a school's value-added effect if the growth standard falls within the confidence band of what is defined as expected performance.

NORM REFERENCED TESTS: Tests produced to measure student achievement against a mean level of performance, not against a criterion standard. These tests are valid across a general population of students.

OBSERVED SCORES: Actual scores that students earn on a test.

OUTLIERS: Data points that fall outside of the normal distribution of scores.

PERCENTAGE: Portion of the whole.

PERCENTILE RANK: This score tells how the student performed in relation to a comparison group.

PERCEPTION DATA: Type of data that describes how people feel.

PERFORMANCE DATA: Type of data that describes student outcomes.

POOLED DATA: Accumulation of testing data from students who have the same testing history.

PROCESS DATA: Type of data that describes how things are accomplished.

PROGRESS: Measure of student growth from the end of one school year to the end of the next school year.

QUALITATIVE DATA: Words and descriptions that represent information.

QUANTITATIVE DATA: Numbers represent information.

QUINTILE SUBGROUPS: Subgroups produced when dividing the entire test pool into five groups of the same size. In the school diagnostic report, students are placed into quintiles based on either their predicted score or on the average of their baseline and observed scores.

RANDOM PATTERN: Information in a diagnostic report that reflects that no discernible pattern between achievement levels and gains.

RANGE: Difference between the highest and the lowest number.

RAW SCORE: The number of questions on a test that a student answers correctly.

RELIABILITY: Extent to which a test is dependable, stable and consistent when administered to the same individuals on different occasions.

RUN CHART: Data that is gathered and recorded over time; it "runs" over time.

SCALED SCORES: Scores derived that take into account the difficulty of test items.

SCATTER PLOT: A graphic data analysis tool that portrays the relationship between two variables. It is illustrated by plotted positions for each pair of X and Y values.

SCHOOL DIAGNOSTIC REPORT: Report that breaks a school value-added effect across quintile subgroup performances. This report provides information about the progress students of different achievement levels make when compared to a growth standard.

SCHOOL EFFECT: Average impact the school has on students' progress in a specific subject and grade level.

SCHOOL EFFECT STANDARD ERROR: Standard error is a measure of the uncertainty in the estimate of school effect to reflect the school's true effect. A school effect with a relatively small standard error is more precise than one with a larger standard error.

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTIC: This report is similar to the school diagnostic report, but provides information relative to the state proficiency categories.

SCHOOL VALUE-ADDED MEASURE: Indicates the influence a school or classroom has on the average student's learning over a year's time.

SCHOOL VALUE-ADDED REPORT: Report providing detailed analysis of a school's average student progress, grade level-by-grade level, and subject by subject.

SCHOOL VERSUS TESTING POOL AVERAGE: Column on the school value-added report that classifies a school's value-added effect into one of three categories (Above, NDD, Below).

SHED PATTERN: A gain pattern in a diagnostic report that looks like the sloping roof of a shed.

DOWNWARD SHED PATTERN reveals that low-achieving students benefit more from instruction than high-achieving students.

UPWARD SHED PATTERN reveals that high-achieving students benefit more from instruction than low-achieving students.

SOAR: Battelle for Kids' school improvement collaborative.

STANDARD DEVIATION: Measure of the variability of scores in a population.

STANDARD SCORE: Score tells how the student compares with the average.

STANDARDIZED TEST: Test where scores are interpreted in reference to a standard.

STANINE: Standard nines.

SUMMATIVE DATA: Final assessment.

TABLES: Organizes data into columns and rows.

TEEPEE PATTERN: Middle-achieving students benefit more from instruction than high- and low-achieving students.

REVERSE TEEPEE PATTERN reveals that middle-achieving students benefit least from instruction compared to high- and low-achieving students.

TESTING POOL: Set of school districts that forms the comparison group for value-added analysis. Pooled districts have the same testing history.

TRENDS: Stable and consistent patterns over time.

VALIDITY: Extent to which a test measures what it was intended to measure.

VALUE-ADDED ANALYSIS: Statistical methodology used to measure student progress.