Stanine (STAndard NINE) is a method of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a

mean A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

of five and a

standard deviation In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation of the values of a variable about its Expected value, mean. A low standard Deviation (statistics), deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean ( ...

of two. Some web sources attribute stanines to the U.S. Army Air Forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Psychometric legend has it that a 1–9 scale was used because of the compactness of recording the score as a single digit but Thorndike claims that by reducing scores to just nine values, stanines "reduce the tendency to try to interpret small score differences (p. 131)". The earliest known use of stanines was by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942.

Calculation

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: The underlying basis for obtaining stanines is that a

normal distribution In probability theory and statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is f(x) = \frac ...

is divided into nine intervals, each of which has a width of 0.5 standard deviations excluding the first and last, which are just the remainder (the tails of the distribution). The

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

lies at the centre of the fifth interval.

Use today

Today stanines are mostly used in educational assessment. * The

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Canada used the stanine system until 2003, when it switched to a 4-point scale. * In the United States, the Educational Records Bureau (they administer the "ERBs") reports test scores as stanines and percentiles. * In Europe,

EUROCONTROL The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol (stylised ''EUROCONTROL''), is an international organisation working to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe. Founded in 1963, Eur ...

scores its FEAST Test - a test used for selecting candidates for ATC - using stanines. * The New Zealand Council for Educational Research uses stanines. * GL Assessment use stanines alongside SAS (Standardised Age Scores) to express the results of its CAT4 assessments, used in many UK and British international schools "GL Assessment"
/ref> * The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test uses a stanine system along with percentiles. * High schools in Korea use a stanine system to evaluate their students. * The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) uses the stanine grading system ranging from 10 to 90 (10, 20, 30 and so on) to rank intelligence ability relevant to the army's use, determined by a 100 question test divided to 4 categories having to do with different uses and implications of cognitive abilities * The Polish Matura secondary-school exam results and university admissions utilise the stanine system

Notes

References

* * * {{cite book , editor1-first=Wesley Frank , editor1-last=Craven , editor2-first=James Lea , editor2-last=Cate , orig-year=1955 , year=1983 , title=Men and Planes , volume=6 , edition=new imprint , series=The Army Air Forces in World War II , publisher=University of Chicago Press (1955) / Office of Air Force History (1983) , place=Chicago, IL , lccn=48-3657 , ISBN=0-912799-03-X , id=AFD-101105-019 , via=afhso.af.mil , url=http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101105-019.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123154009/http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101105-019.pdf , archive-date=2016-11-23 Educational assessment and evaluation Scales Comparison of assessments Psychometrics

Calculation

Use today

See also

Notes

References