I'm basing my statements about this on having administered the ITBS intended for grades 1-8 and the ITED intended for grades 9-12 *and* having actually taken all of the tests I've administered myself. As a homeschooler, I also taught students at levels K-12 in language arts/English and math from the K level through Algebra II. I have also had my kids take the MAP and the WJ-III at various times through the years.
I'm not mentioning all of this because I'm trying to impress anyone. Over the years, as a homeschooler, I've been truly interested in how my kids' achievement on standardized tests corresponds to their day-to-day achievement on their schoolwork.
What I've found is that *mastering* the material at a particular level (and not knowing any more than that) seems to correspond to placing in the 90th percentile and above for that level. I base this on knowing what is taught at a particular level, what is on the test, and what I know my kids know. When my kids have taken the MAP or WJ-III their GE scores do match up well with their ITBS scores.
What is frightening and depressing is what GE really means. The 8.9 GE we've been discussing means that the average 8th grader in the 50th percentile has mastered 4th grade work. And the GE of 13+ which so many of us here see filling the GE column for our elementary age kids is equivalent to a SS of about 285 or so, which equates to mastery at the 6th-7th grade level.
The reason that a college degree has become the new high school diploma is because the average kid coming out of high school today has had an 8th grade education.
