On Score Reporting
Damian Betebenner
October 2nd, 2025
Chestnut Hill, MA
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
Excuse me while I regress into
academic mode and engage in
pedantic hair-splitting
Score Reporting
• Two words that flow off the tongue and promise so much but
mean so little.
• What are we talking about when we discuss a “score report”?
• What is the purpose of a score report (I know, to “report
scores” 😂)
• How would we distinguish a “good” score report from a
“bad” score report?
• To answer these questions well we need to get out our scalpel
and do some hair splitting.
Score Reporting
• What do we mean by scores:
• Let’s not make this too hard! We’ll focus on education
related “scores”.
• I’d argue that scores can be quantitative or qualitative - no
need to nitpick over what is and isn’t a score.
• These scores are presumably reported by means of a
“report”
Score Reporting
• What do we mean by reporting:
• This is where is gets more sticky.
• A report presumably communicates/explains something
(scores and their interpretations) to “someone”
• Most often the someone is/are human being(s)
• However, score reporting can take place between
“machines” via APIs for machine consumption.
• We’ll focus on score reporting for people.
MA School and District Report Cards
Individual Student Report
Billy Gonzales North End Middle School
How to interpret this student
growth & achievement report Mathematics
Advanced
Achievement
● Catch Up
Target
DEMO ● DEMO Mathematics
● Catch Up ●●
Target ●● Scale Score
Scale Score ● ●
Growth
Proficient ● Level Percentiles
DEMO Very High 81st − 99th
Achievement High 61st − 80th
Part Proficient
Levels Typical 40th − 60th
Low 20th − 39th
Unsatisfactory Very Low 1st − 19th
Student
Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7
Growth 2015−2016 2016−2017 2017−2018 2018−2019 2019−2020
Percentile Scale Score 438 447 489 495
Achievement Level
Achievement Target
Proficient Part Proficient Part Proficient Part Proficient
Proficient (514) Proficient (547)
Achievement
Growth Percentile 18 64 44
Catch Up/Keep Up Growth Level Very Low High Typical
Growth
Growth Target
Move Up/Stay Up
Catch Up (70) Catch Up (82)
Targets
Suggested Uses
Advanced Reading
Move Up
Achievement
● Target
DEMO Reading
● Scale Score
● Review past growth to assess ● Keep Up
student academic progress toward Catch Up ● Target
Target ●
●● Growth
Proficient
DEMO achievement goals. ●
Level Percentiles
● Develop remediation or enrich−
● Very High 81st − 99th
ment plans based on rate of
High 61st − 80th
growth needed to reach higher
DEMO achievement levels. Part Proficient Typical 40th − 60th
Low 20th − 39th
● Identify the rate of progress ●
needed in order to reach or Unsatisfactory Very Low 1st − 19th
maintain proficient status
Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7
on the DEMO next year. 2015−2016 2016−2017 2017−2018 2018−2019 2019−2020
Scale Score 449 533 579 602
Achievement Level
Achievement Target
Unsatisfactory Part Proficient Part Proficient Proficient
Proficient (592) Proficient (620)/Advanced (661)
Achievement
Growth Percentile 69 85 74
Growth Level
Growth Target
High Very High High
Catch Up (60) Keep Up (76)/Move Up (99)
Growth
For more information please visit the Student Growth Percentiles Package (the SGP Package) at www.sgp.io or contact dbetebenner@nciea.org
Cooperatively developed by the SGP Package & the Center for Assessment, Inc. Distributed by the SGP Package.
Hard Questions
• Some of the dumbest questions are the hardest questions to answer.
• And REAL answers to these dumb questions are necessary to make good
score reports:
• Who is the report for?
• How do we intend the users to use the scores?
• What do we think will occur if the users use the scores as we intend?
• What outcomes do we think will follow the use of the scores (as we
intend).
• The difference between good and bad score reporting will center on how
well we carry out the labor intensive work of score reporting design.
Exercise
• You’re tasked with developing a “score reporting” web
application directed toward parents with special needs
students.
About this copy
On Score Reporting — Boston College DePascale Seminar, October 2, 2025.
This is an image-based copy of the original Keynote slides; builds and animations are flattened.