[senco-forum] RE: 4th percentile

Julie says:
The 10 year old pupil you quote has a reading age deficit of 2 years as compared to the average score of 10 year olds on that particular reading test - that is all.

Is it not self-evident that the 'average score of 10 years olds will only be achieved by a 10 year old with an 'average IQ   ie 100 or do y ou really believe that the average 10 year old has an IQ of 140 or perhaps 70?  Do you not see that if this was the case, the entire facade of 'standardised' data would be stood on its head.

There is and ineed has to be, profound corellation between IQ and reading-age. Where a child has a well above  average IQ  and only an average reading-age - this is the clearest possible indication that something needs investigating because such a child could be 'coasting' in school and 'getting by' with very little effort or has a significant learning disability because he or she is not making progess in line with his or her intellectual capability.

Eddie C.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: julie cozens 
  To: Eddie Carron ; senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 10:10 PM
  Subject: Re: [senco-forum] RE: 4th percentile

  Eddie - 
  Reading age is a measure completely separate from and irrelevant to IQ. The 10 year old pupil you quote has a reading age deficit of 2 years as compared to the average score of 10 year olds on that particular reading test - that is all.
  I think muddling the two is confusing - and even a little dangerous.
  Julie

  Eddie Carron <eddiecarron at btconnect.com> wrote:
    The best explanations are always the simplest and the one offered by Brendan hits the spot accurately.

    It is the concept of Reading Age that is most widely misunderstood and misused in schools. If a boy has a chronological age of exactly 10 and a reading-age of exactly 8 that does not mean that the boy has a reading deficit of two years. It means that the boy has a reading-age deficit of two years if compared with an average child who has an IQ of 100 and only six or seven percent of children have an !Q of 100 

    If the boy is compared with another group of children with the same IQ as himself, he could even have a reading-age surpluss. If compared with yet another group with an IQ of say 120, he would have about a five year deficit.

    The concept of 'average' is critical in all standardised data and 'average' is a numerical concept - not human one. Children may have average heights and weights but there are no 'average' children.

    Eddie C.

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