Assessment/Accountability MCAS
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System

Threshold Scores for the 2008 MCAS Tests

A threshold score is the minimum raw score (number of points) that a student must earn on an MCAS test for his or her performance to be classified at a particular performance level. For example, based on the chart on the next page, 18 is the threshold score for the Needs Improvement level on the 2008 MCAS grade 10 Mathematics test-in other words, a student who earned a raw score of 18 on the 2008 MCAS grade 10 Mathematics test earned a performance level of Needs Improvement , while a student who earned a raw score of 17 on the 2008 MCAS grade 10 Mathematics test earned a performance level of Failing.

Threshold scores are adjusted slightly each year. The Department makes these adjustments so that scaled scores have the same meaning over time-in other words, so that a 240 on the grade 8 Mathematics test symbolizes the same level of performance in 2008 as it did in 2007. Threshold scores need to be adjusted because the MCAS test questions that determine a student's scaled score are completely new each year.

The Department is committed to maintaining the same level of difficulty for each MCAS test (i.e., the 2007 grade 6 ELA test should be as difficult as the 2008 grade 6 ELA test). However, since each year's common items are unique, there are slight, unavoidable differences in difficulty from year to year.

Adjusting the threshold scores each year to account for these slight differences allows the scaled scores to be meaningful over time. The adjustments are made objectively, using a statistical process called equating.

Files to Assist in Your Analysis

The accompanying files contain the 2008 MCAS raw to scaled score conversion tables for all subjects and grade levels. In addition, threshold scores for each performance level are listed at the end of this document. The conversion tables and the threshold scores may be used in conjunction with preliminary MCAS reports to generate preliminary results for students, schools, and districts. The final reports, which will be posted for school and district review and released to the public at the end of September, will provide official MCAS results. Please keep in mind that all MCAS results-both preliminary and official-are embargoed until the public release of final results in late September.

To aid in data analysis, an updated version of TestWiz (version 9.90) is now available at www.testwiz.com. This version provides scaled scores and performance levels and offers other information as well.

* The maximum score is the total number of raw score points that a student could earn in the tested subject if he or she answered all of the multiple-choice questions correctly (one point per question) and received the highest possible score for every other question (four points for each open-response question, except two points for each grade 3 mathematics open-response question; one point for each short-answer question [included in mathematics only]; and twenty points for the ELA Composition offered in grades 4, 7, and 10).

Raw-to-Scaled Score Conversion Tables (8/14/08)