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
intelligence tests reported a mental-age score (MA).
What’s the problem
with age-equivalent scores?
The scores create an inaccurate impression of performance for
children who are much younger or older than the age comparison group. An age
score of 7-6 obtained by a 5-year-old does not account for all of the knowledge
or ability that is typical of a child age 7-6. Similarly, a teen aged 13 may
have different skills than represented by an age score of 7-6, which of course
suggests a very low skill level for a 13-year-old.
The reliability of age scores for children whose actual age
is much lower or higher than the reported age score varies from the reliability
values for children close to the age-score. The reliability of scores is not a
stable characteristic. Retesting can yield very different results on retesting
when a very high or low score is obtained.
Age scores do not allow for an accurate comparison over time
because the content of the tests and the abilities of children change
dramatically as children age. Reading tests and reading abilities are very
different for children age 7 and those age 14. Children learn very different math
concepts at age 12 than do those at age 8. To say an 8-year old has an age score
of 12-1 in math is hardly accurate.
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Age score differences do not provide parents and teachers
with an accurate picture of delays and advancement. A child who is one year
behind peers in math at age 8 is further behind than is a child who is one year
behind at age 15. The gains children make in reading, math, and other skills
are greater in the early years of life than in later years.
Age units are inaccurate compared to other scores. Age
scores report differences in months but child development is uneven—especially
when it comes to mental abilities like reading comprehension, spelling, and visual
memory. Comparisons do not make a lot of sense for children of the same
chronological age who earn different age scores. Two children having the same chronological age of 8-years and 2-months but different reading comprehension test age scores
of 6-10 and 9-3 have different skill levels. But concluding they are 2-years and
5-months apart on reading comprehension is not reasonable because only a small
sample of skills are assessed on tests. Even worse might be the perception that
the score difference is somehow fixed. Differences this large will almost
always change over time.
There are problems with the samples of children at different
ages when the age scores are very different from the chronological age. Consider
children with an actual age of 8-3. If one obtains a test age score of 5-6 and
another of 11-3. A lot of 8-year-olds can take a test designed for 8-year-olds
but how many 5-year-olds or 11-year-olds take the same test? The problem is
having an accurate sample group for comparison purposes.
What scores are
better than age-equivalent scores?
Several scores are better than age-equivalent scores. Most
tests report standard scores (SS) and national percentile rank (NPR) scores on
children’s achievement tests. These scores compare children to others of the
same age group.
What about grade
scores?
Grade scores have the same problems as do age scores. A
grade score is reported as a grade number with a decimal and a second number
referring to the month of a school year. A grade score of 5.6 means the sixth
month of grade 5.
You can see my glossary of test and statistical terms at this website: https://sites.google.com/view/counselorstatistics/glossary
Sutton, G. W. (2017). Applied statistics: Concepts for
counselors. Springfield, MO: Sunflower. Amazon Paperback ISBN-10:
1521783926, ISBN-13: 978-1521783924
.
Connections
and Links to Resources
TWITTER @Geoff.W.Sutton
LinkedIN Geoffrey Sutton PhD
Publications (many
free downloads)
Academia Geoff W Sutton (PhD)
ResearchGate Geoffrey W Sutton
(PhD)
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