In 1986 Louisiana established a statewide norm-referenced testing program as one component of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program. Its purpose was to provide parents, students, educators, and policymakers with normative data that can be used to evaluate student, school, and district performance. Since spring of 1998, the Iowa Test of Educational Development (ITED) has been used to measure student achievement for the Louisiana Statewide Norm-Referenced Testing Program. It has also been used by teachers and administrators in planning instructional programs for students. The ITED is administered to every freshman student in the spring of each year.

The scores help to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses in the tested areas. Scores can also be used to monitor year-to-year growth of students and groups of `1students in academic areas. The following scores are reported in Louisiana:

A. Standard Score (SS)—The major use of the standard score is to measure achievement growth of students or groups of students from year to year.

B. Percentile Rank—The percentile rank is reported in units ranging from 1 to 99 and is the most easily understood score for interpreting student achievement.

C. Stanine—Stanines for groups are useful for identifying areas of curricular strengths and weaknesses but are less precise than percentile rank scores.

D. Normal Curve Equivalents—NCE’s, derived from national percentile ranks, are normalized standard scores with a mean of 50. They can be interpreted in much the same way as percentile ranks. NCE’s may be averaged to describegroup performance because of their equal-interval scaling.

Benton scored in the 61st percentile in 2001. This score declined two points in 2002, three points in 2003, and three points in 2004. However, each year Benton scored higher than the state and national averages (pp. 3-26…3-27).