Well, I got curious and assuming I found the right page it sounds like they are using their search for the norm.
Students whose scores on the SAT, ACT, or EXPLORE are in the top 25% of our entire seven-state region are invited to a very special recognition ceremony in their region to celebrate their accomplishment. Some students have further scored in the top 10%, and some are our top scorers in a particular subtest or test category.
Another good idea slain by an ugly fact. It does seem odd that the norms for that search are so different.
Yes, they do look at the top 25% of their region for each year so the numbers may change quite a bit from year to year. I actually thought that the top 25% would be lower this year b/c WATS lowered the bar to do the testing (90th percentile on the grade level achievement test rather than 95th in years past).
There are some regions for which dd would easily be in (TIP, for instance) and there appear to be others where the guidelines for awards are so restrictive that only a few kids get in out of hundreds or maybe thousands (like NUMATS). Honestly, it isn't the end of the world. I just thought that she did well and am surprised that so many other kids did so much better and I'm also disappointed for her b/c she was expecting to get an award.
eta: CBK/WATS doesn't break down their data to the extent that Duke/TIP does & they haven't posted the data for this year yet, but in looking at
last year's interpretive guide, 41% of their 7th graders scored at or above a 500 on CR (4% at 600-690 and 37% at 500-590). I have no idea how many of those kids in the 500-590 range were at the upper or lower end of that range. I was actually thinking that her writing score was the one that was a shoo in even though it was lower than her CR score in that it seems like more kids score poorly on the writing portion & it wasn't included in awards last year.
