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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]95th seems lower than other years.[/quote]

It is, but for a different group of children. In the past, the student had to get a score that was better than 98 percent of ALL kids who took the test.  That "ALL" includes thousands and thousands of kids across the country from all walks of life.  The most recent test only looks at kids who took the test in Fairfax County.

Now let's compare the 2 groups. The median household income in the US in 2012 was $50,000. The median household income in Fairfax County (in 2009 was the fastest I could find) was $102,000.  So if you are taking a test, and you live in one of the wealthiest counties in the US AND your score is being compared with tens of thousands of kids who took the same test and more than likely live in a less affluent place, then chances are you will score much better than all those poorer kids. You will score in a higher percentile.  It's easier for you to score higher than 95 percent of all the kids taking the test.

BUT if you are taking the test and the only other kids taking the test also live in your wealthy area, then chances are most of you are going to do well. Why? Because you and your fellow test takers come from a wealthy area where your parents probably went to college and read to you in the womb and took you to music classes, etc, etc. And in order to be better than 98 percent of those mostly affluent kids taking the test, you have to score REALLY, REALLY high. In order to account for this smaller, but "stronger" population of test takers, the benchmark score was lowered.

Another way to look at it is this--it's "easier" to graduate in the top 10% of the University of Maryland than it is to graduate in the top 10% at Harvard.  [/quote]

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