Ask an Expert: Jim Cox and Pat Puleo
Measuring Up: A Parent's Guide to Testing, Grades, and Assessments

The past two years my child has scored over 95 percent in all categories on the SAT-9. This year she scored 10 points lower in just about all categories. How should I interpret this?

The score you are citing is not a percent but a percentile. That means that it compares your child's performance to the specially selected sampling of students from across the nation. This percentile score is not a measure of the number of questions answered correctly.

One important limit on the percentile score is this: it is not possible to compare percentile rankings from grade level to grade level.

If you want to check year-to-year progress, you can look at your daughter's check the raw score and the number of items on the test (compute the actual percentage of correct answers). This score — the percent of questions answered correctly — can be used for comparison as your child moves through the grade levels. You could also use the scale score or the normed curve equivalent (NCE).

Here's how tricky the percentile score can be. It is entirely possible for a child to actually answer more questions correctly each year, and see a decline in the percentile rankings. The difference of 10 percentile points may mean she has not performed as well, or it may only mean the sample group did slightly better.

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