Question
Is there any reason to report raw scores on comprehensive evaluation reports? I typically report the standard score and percentile rank, as well as a ratings equivalence (i.e., average, below average, etc.). Is it best practice to report the raw score and
Answer
For most purposes, standard score and percentile rank (and confidence interval, in some cases) are sufficient. However, there are situations in which raw scores are very helpful. The following are the most common:
In some cases, children at the lower end of the age range may be expected to be near floor performance. Thus, a child who actually scores a zero raw score may nevertheless be given a 10th or 15th percentile ranking, with the corresponding standard score, for example. The percentile rank and standard score would seem to imply that the child answered some of the questions correctly, when in fact this is not the case.
Another issue related to age differences is that a child who makes little to no progress may seem to regress on a test because he or she has gotten older. For example, a certain raw score at age 5 may correspond to a 25th percentile rank, while the same raw score at age 6 may only fall at the 5th percentile. This seems to imply that the child has regressed - which he or she has, relative to his/her peers, but not relative to the number of items answered correctly.
To be on the safe side, one can deal with the existence of these issues by always reporting raw scores as well as standard scores and percentile ranks. Or, one can be alert to situations such as these where standard scores and percentile ranks may be misleading or provide incomplete information and report raw scores and their full interpretations only when such a need arises.
Shelley Velleman is an associate professor of speech-language pathology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She specializes in child phonology, including phonological development in children learning African American English as a first dialect, and phonological disorders, including phonological development in children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Williams syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Shelly Velleman, Ph.D
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