[Vision2020] Re: Vision2020 digest, Vol 1 #355 - 12 msgs

[Andreas Schou]

> > The Winter 2003 Idaho Reading Indicator test results reveal
> > that 29% of third-grade students in the Moscow School
> > District and 38% of third-grade students in the state read
> > below grade level.

Unless I'm mistaken, a normal curve expects that 50% of students in the
state will read below grade level, rather than 29% to 38%. Because of
the 'granularity' of the scale, I can see how this number might
approach 50%, but there are always students that are below average. This
fact can be mitigated, but it can never be entirely removed. I'm perplexed
that you think that this is somehow crisis-level reading ability -- is
there some statistical methodology used to calculate these numbers that
I'm not aware of?

-- ACS