What are stanines in educational testing?

Stanines are indeed a standard score used in educational testing that organizes student performance on a nine-point scale. This scale provides a simple way to interpret and compare scores. The nine stanines range from 1 to 9, where a stanine of 5 represents the average performance, with scores above 5 indicating above-average performance and scores below 5 indicating below-average performance.

This approach allows for easy understanding of where a student's performance falls relative to peers. The distribution of scores within stanines is designed such that approximately half of the test-takers will score in the middle stanines (4, 5, and 6), which is particularly helpful for educators and psychologists in interpreting test results for educational assessment.

The other options do not accurately describe stanines. They refer to different statistical concepts, such as median, maximum value, and variance, which are unrelated to the nine-point stanine system used in educational assessments.