Unfortunately, school systems use this very confidence interval to their favor. If MCPS, if the 90% confidence interval overlaps with the average range (which often begins at 85), then a child does not qualify for services. There is, of course, room for professional judgment, but this can come back to haunt a provider later, so it is often simpler to follow this guideline. Remember though, that functional performance also must be taken into consideration. No single measure can be used.

If your child scores at the cutoff score for average, you should seek to understand the standard error of measurement of the test. It is equally likely their “true score” is below the cutoff as above.

And I would proceed as if they are below in seeking support/ services.

Different tests have different score descriptors. For the Arizona speech test, the average range starts at 85 standard score.
School districts publish DRA benchmarks, and sometimes the benchmarks are reformulated- this has happened in APS.

Standardized exams provide severity guidelines in the manual. These are the terms used by MCPS when standardized exams are used. Only some tests utilize terms such as low average. If the manual doesn't specify use of the term, it should not be used. The range of 85-115 is indeed considered average for most of these assessments. No one is under the impression that 85 is just as good as 115, but that doesn't mean it would be acceptable to use terminology not indicated by the assessment---that is why it is called standardized. As for the reading measure you mention, I can't speak to that.

Watch the age norms they use too.

I caught one member of our original IEP team throwing around inaccurate terms like average/ typical etc for my severely dyslexic DDs reading performance. We did private testing and knew what we were dealing with in late K. They were trying to convince us to wait and see if she would catch up.

So every time they used a term like that I asked them to define it and then in the moment looked up the actual score distributions/ labels in the reports with the team. That person stopped coming to the meetings, she was the “reading specialist” who knew nothing about dyslexia.

LOW Average is still considered to be average. Average is the middle two standard deviations (middle68%) or the middle 50%. Both include half above average and half below average.

Different schools/districts do use different ranges for grade level for DRA or similar tests. MCPS has a different range than FCPS, for example (MCPS uses a higher range in the lower grades).

This has happened twice now. Once a speced teacher tried to convince us the DRA was normal range. We had print outs that said DC's score was below average, but they apparently had their own range that broadened the definition of average.

A few years later DC had Speech and Language testing at the school. A standard score of 86 was considered average. Sorry, I know some like to think a standard deviation of 15 is all average below and above 100, but most places consider 86 LOW AVERAGE, not average. A child Call me nitpicky, but I resent having my kid's abilities described as average when so many of the standard scores where mid to late 80s. Yes, there has been improvement, but it is so misleading to call that average IMO.