Stanine
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218602967
2008-06-11T11:11:30Z
Melcombe
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revised categories
'''Stanine''' (STAndard NINE) is a method of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a mean of five (5) and a standard deviation of two (2).
Some web sources attribute stanines to the [[United States Army Air Forces|U.S. Army Air Forces]] during [[World War II]]. The earliest known use of Stanines was by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1943[http://www.avca-sj.org/WINGS32.html].
Test scores are scaled to stanine scores using the following algorithm:
# Rank results from lowest to highest
# Give the lowest 4% a stanine of 1, the next 7% a stanine of 2, etc., according to the following table:
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1">
<caption>Calculating Stanines</caption>
<tr bgcolor="#eeeeee" align="center"><td>'''Result Ranking'''</td> <td width="7%">4%</td> <td width="7%">7%</td width="7%"> <td width="7%">12%</td> <td width="7%">17%</td> <td width="7%">20%</td> <td width="7%">17%</td> <td width="7%">12%</td> <td width="7%">7%</td> <td width="7%">4%</td> </tr>
<tr bgcolor="#dddddd" align="center"><td>'''Stanine'''</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>3</td> <td>4</td> <td>5</td> <td>6</td> <td>7</td> <td>8</td> <td>9</td> </tr>
</table>
The underlying basis for obtaining stanines is that a [[normal distribution]] is divided into nine intervals, each of which has a width of one half of a standard deviation excluding the first and last. The mean lies approximately in the centre of the fifth interval.
Stanines can be used to convert any test score into a single digit number. This was valuable when paper punch cards were the standard method of storing this kind of information. However, because all stanines are integers, two scores in a single stanine are sometimes further apart than two scores in adjacent stanines. This reduces their value.
Today stanines are mostly used in educational assessment[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-45,GGLD:en&q=Stanine]. The [[University of Alberta]] in [[Edmonton]], [[Canada]] used the stanine system until [[2003]], when it switched to a 4-point scale [http://www.registrar.ualberta.ca/ro.cfm?id=184].
==See also==
*[[Normal score]]
==References==
* Ballew, Pat [http://www.pballew.net/arithme3.html#stanine Origins of some arithmetic terms-2]. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2004.
* Boydsten, Robert E. (February 27, 2000), [http://www.avca-sj.org/WINGS32.html Winning My Wings]
* Harcourt Assessment Inc. [http://harcourtassessment.com/hai/Templates/GeneralPurposeTemplate.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2fhaiweb%2fCultures%2fen-US%2fResources%2fGlossary%2ehtm&NRNODEGUID=%7bEF521EE7-9004-43C8-A2E1-9AE5CB470063%7d&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest#stan Harcourt Assessment, Inc. - Resources - Glossary of Terms]. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2004
[[Category:Educational assessment and evaluation]]
[[Category:Scales]]
[[Category:Comparison of assessments]]
[[Category:Psychometrics]]
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[[zh:標準九分]]