Assessment, Statistics, and Research

What are age scores? Age scores, also called age-equivalent scores , are supposed to help people understand how a person’s test score compares to other people of the same age. They are often provided to teachers and parents to show how children scored on achievement tests compared to their age peers. A common age-equivalent abbreviation is AE .  Age scores are reported with a hyphen. The first number refers to age in years and the second number refers to the age in months. A score of 8-4 is supposed to mean a test performance typical of children age 8-years and 4-months. The scores appear convenient and make a kind of common sense. An age score of 7-6 is supposed to mean that a child earned a test score similar to children age 7-years and 6-months. But there are problems with the scores. What tests report age scores? Age scores are commonly reported with results of achievement tests. They are sometimes reported with results of intelligence tests. Old i...

The Theistic Spirituality Outcome Scale (TSOS) has potential as a useful outcome measure. Recently, a group of us completed a study of clients who saw Christian counselors. We assessed their current well-being using two measures: The Schwartz Outcome Scale (SOS) and the Theistic Outcome Scale (TSOS). (See references below.) The TSOS was designed by Richards (2005) as a measure of well-being for people associated with a theistic religion like Christianity, Judaism or Islam. We used the 17-item version, which uses a 5-point response format from  1 = never to 5 = almost always to rate each item (e.g., “I felt spiritually alive.”). Reliability We only calculated coefficient alpha, which was strong at .95. Validity The TSOS was significantly correlated with ratings of satisfaction with Christian counseling (.65) and likelihood of returning to Christian counseling (.62). It was significantly correlated with the SOS measure of general well-being (.84). Other signi...

Averages Can Be Deceiving What You Need to Know About Averages Most people assume that a simple statistic like a mean or a median tells the whole story. It doesn’t. Averages can clarify—but they can also mislead—depending on which one you use and how your data are distributed. Understanding the mean, median, and mode helps you interpret test scores, salaries, evaluations, and research findings with greater accuracy. CALCULATOR : I have included a basic calculator at the bottom of this page. The Mean, Median, and Mode Mean The mean is the arithmetic average of a set of numbers. You calculate it by adding all the values and dividing by the number of values. Example: For the data 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the sum is 15 and the mean is 3. The mean uses every value in the dataset, which makes it useful but also sensitive to extreme scores. Median The median is the middle value when numbers are arranged from lowest to highest. Half the values fall above it and half fall below it. Example: In the set 1,...