Stanine

Stanine (STAndard NINE) is a method of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a mean of five and a standard deviation of two.

Not to be confused with Stanene.

Some web sources attribute stanines to the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. 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[1] 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 1943.

Calculation

Test scores are scaled to stanine scores using the following algorithm:

  1. Rank results from lowest to highest
  2. Give the lowest 4% a stanine of 1, the next 7% a stanine of 2, etc., according to the following table:
Calculating Stanines
Bracketed
proportion		4%7%12%17%20%17%12%7%4%
Stanine123456789
Standardized
score		below −1.75−1.75 to −1.25−1.25 to −0.75−0.75 to −0.25−0.25 to +0.25+0.25 to +0.75+0.75 to +1.25+1.25 to +1.75above +1.75
Wechsler
scale score		below 7474 to 8181 to 8989 to 9696 to 104104 to 111111 to 119119 to 126above 126
Cumulative proportion4%11%23%40%60%77%89%96%100%

The underlying basis for obtaining stanines is that a normal distribution 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 mean lies at the centre of the fifth interval.

Use today

Today stanines are mostly used in educational assessment.

  • The University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada used the stanine system until 2003, when it switched to a 4-point scale.[2]
  • In the United States, the Educational Records Bureau (they administer the "ERBs") reports test scores as stanines and percentiles.
  • The New Zealand Council for Educational Research uses stanines.[3]
  • 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 [4]
  • The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test uses a stanine system along with percentiles.
  • Average Korean High School uses 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

See also

Notes
  1. Thorndike, R. L. (1982). Applied Psychometrics. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin
  2. "Grade Comparison Guide". Archived from the original on 2006-12-12. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  3. "Understanding Stanines", nzcersupport.org.nz
  4. "GL Assessment"

References

Volume Six MEN AND PLANES THE ARMY AIR FORCES In World War II PREPARED UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF WESLEY FRANK CRAVEN JAMES LEA GATE Princeton University University of Chicago

Here is a link to the document: http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101105-019.pdf Archived 2016-11-23 at the Wayback Machine

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