Student & Parent Info

James River uses several standardized tests to help support our curriculum and provide each child with the highest quality education possible. These tests provide nationwide data from reputable sources. We give standardized tests to provide the following:

The information below can help you interpret your child’s scores.

 

How does the school use this information?
During a normal testing administration,  we use standardized testing data to inform curriculum reviews by department, and we use the data to monitor an individual student’s progress as well. For eighth-grade students, the scores will be sent as a part of a student’s transcripts.

What is the difference between National Norms and Independent School norms?
Testing norms represent how a student compares to peers in different sample groups. The national norm groups show how your child compares to all students who take the test nationally (public, private, parochial, etc.). Independent school norms represent a smaller sample population comparing your child to other private independent school students. It is normal for the scores to be different for each norm population. We primarily look at the independent school norms for decision-making.

What is a percentile?
Percentile represents the percentage of students who scored below your child. If your child’s percentile was 62, that means that 62% of the test takers scored below your child's.

 

What is a stanine?
Stanine is a single-digit score for your child (1-9). It represents the standard deviation of the scores as represented by a bell curve. The median stanine scores are 4, 5, and 6, representing an “average” score. Statistically speaking, most students will have a stanine of 4, 5, or 6.  The image below should help you visually understand stanines.

What action should parents take if a score appears lower than usual?
First, a single standardized test score might not represent a need for concern. This is why looking at trends over time versus an individual testing session is important.  Here are a few reminders to consider lower scores:

 

A test score is simply a snapshot. It is possible that a child had a poor testing day. We often evaluate other scenarios to put a test score in context: Was your child distracted during the test? Were they upset about something at school or home? Have they been ill or getting ill? Do they display anxiety about tests?

 

Human development is uneven. While all children go through a predictable set of developmental events, the rate at which they do so is quite variable and individual. Some students may have incredible progress at younger ages with slower progress through middle school. Research shows that children can have a slight cognitive decline during growth spurts or puberty. Consistent upward progress is unusual, which is why it is best to follow the trends over time. 

If there is still a concern about test results, parents can help reinforce basic skill development by encouraging regular reading habits and math practice. Independent reading reinforces vocabulary acquisition, understanding of basic sentence structure, and improved reading comprehension and reasoning skills. Math practice reinforces basic numeracy and math facts. It is still possible that some students may need additional support at school through our Resource program to either reinforce foundational skills or provide additional evaluation for more targeted support. 

 

Parents who have further questions about a child’s performance on standardized tests should contact Toinette Staley, our Academic Support Director [email protected] or Jenn Lindsay, our Head of School at [email protected]