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STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 4

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF ASSESSMENT RESULTS

MODULE OVERVIEW

Analysis and Interpretation of Assessment Results

The analysis and interpretation of data should support the fundamental purpose of assessment:
establishing and understanding where learners are in an aspect of their learning at the time of assessment. In
analysis and interpretation of assessment results, the data has to be classified and organized in such a way
that it becomes easily readable and presentable that is, converted to information. Data or assessment results
are usually collected in a raw format and thus the inherent information is difficult to understand. Therefore, raw
data is need to be summarized, processed, and analyzed to usefully derive information from them. 
Furthermore, each data set needs to be presented in a certain way depending on what it is used for. Planning
how the data will be presented is essential before appropriately processing raw data. In this study guide
students will be abreast on how to utilize assessment results to improved teacher performance and student
achievement

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

At the end of this Module, you should be able to

1. Interpret assessment results accurately and utilize them to help learners improve their performance and
achievement; and
2. Utilize assessment results to make informed-decisions to improve instruction.

Textual, Tabular and Graphical Presentation

“In an effective classroom, students should not only know what they are doing, they also know why and
how” – Harry Wong.

Presentation is the process of organizing data into logical, sequential, and meaningful categories and
classifications to make them amenable to study and interpretation. This refers to the organization of data into
tables, graphs or charts, so that logical and statistical conclusions can be derived from the collected
measurements. Analysis and presentation put data into proper order and in categories reducing them into
forms that are intelligible and interpretable so that the relationships between the research specific questions and
their intended answers can be established. There are three ways of presenting data:

1. Textual Presentation
Textual presentation of data means presenting data in the form of words, sentences and paragraphs.
This method comprises presenting data with the help of a paragraph or a number of paragraphs. This kind of
presentation is useful when we are looking to supplement qualitative statements with some data. For this
purpose, the data should not be voluminously represented in tables or diagrams. It just has to be a statement
that serves as a fitting evidence to our qualitative evidence and helps the reader to get an idea of the scale of
a phenomenon. The main aims of textual presentation are to focus attention to some important data and to
supplement tabular presentation.

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For example:
1. Following analysis of responses of students who took at least one online class, results show that 57.63%
(n=34) indicated managing time/procrastination as a challenge. In response to the item, “What are the
biggest challenges you have faced in online or hybrid/online classes?” communicating with the instructor
and collaborating with peers (37.29%, n=22 and 38.98%, n=23 respectively) were selected as the biggest
challenges to taking online or hybrid/online classes. Confusing layout/organization (30.51%, n=18) was
mentioned as one of the biggest challenges as well. Students encounter less difficulties with submitting
assignments (6.78%, n=4), and feeling isolated (8.47%, n=5).
2. Table 2 shows the reported sources of where college students get information about healthy food. As you
can see the most popular source was Internet (21.6%), followed by classes (17.5%), friends and/or family
members (16.6%), book and/or magazines (16.4%), television (16.2%), research journals (3.1%),
newspaper (3.1%), and radio (2.7%) were other resources that provided healthy food information.

Factors to consider in Textual Presentation of Data:

 The researcher should know the target audience who are going to read it.
 The author should use wordings that does not introduce bias in research.
 Accuracy should be maintained in presenting data and the numbers and percentages
presented in the textual data should be reviewed to avoid any mistakes in the presentation.
 To make it easier for the audience to comprehend the important points in data, the researcher
should avoid unnecessary details.
 To make it easier for the audience to comprehend the important points in data, the researcher
should avoid unnecessary details.
 Try to shorten longer phrases wherever possible, mix two phrases when they can be combined
as one.
 One mistake that often researchers make is to use general descriptive words like, too much,
little, exactly, all, always, never, must and many more.
 Another point to consider is to avoid decorative language while make sure that you use
scholarly language in your data presentation.

Advantages
1. Textual presentation of data allows us to interpret the data more elaborately during the
presentation.
2. It allows us to present qualitative data that cannot be presented in graphical or tabular form.
3. Textual presentation can help in emphasizing some important points in data. Allowing us to
explain the data in contextual manner and the reader can draw meaning out of it.
4. Small sets of data can be easily presented through textual presentation. For example, simple
data like, there are 30 students in the class 20 of whom are girls while 10 are boys is easier to
understand through textual presentation. No table or graph is required to present this data as it
can be comprehended through text.
Disadvantages
1. The major disadvantage of the textual presentation of data is that it produces extensive data in
the form of words and paragraphs. It becomes difficult for the reader to draw conclusions in a
glance. On the other hand data presented in tables or graphs can make it easier for the
readers to draw conclusions from the data.

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2. Textual presentation of data is not suitable for large sets of data that has too many details.
Graphical or tabular forms allow the researcher to make large data displayed easily.
3. In textual presentation one has to read through the whole text to understand and comprehend
the main point.
4. Data take longer to read when presented as texts and when the main text includes a long list of
information, readers and reviewers may have difficulties in understanding the information.

3. Tabular Presentation
To be able to create and present an organized picture of information from a research report, it is
important to use certain techniques to communicate findings and interpretations of research studies into
visual form. The common techniques being used to display results are tabular, textual and graphical
methods.
Tabulation may be defined as systematic presentation of data with the help of a statistical table
having a number of rows and columns and complete with reference number, title, description of rows as
well as columns and foot notes, if any.
A table facilitates representation of even large amounts of data in an attractive, easy to read and
organized manner. The data is organized in rows and columns. This is one of the most widely used forms
of presentation of data since data tables are easy to construct and read.

Objectives of Tabular Presentation of Data

 A tabular presentation helps in the simplification of complex data.
 It helps in the comparison of different data sets and brings out their essential aspects.
 Statistical analysis can be undertaken from a tabular presentation.
 A tabular presentation of data further aids in formations of graphs and diagrams for data
analysis.

Components of Data Tables

 Table Number: Each table should have a specific table number for ease of access and locating.
This number can be readily mentioned anywhere which serves as a reference and leads us directly
to the data mentioned in that particular table.
 Title: A table must contain a title that clearly tells the readers about the data it contains, time period
of study, place of study and the nature of classification of data.
 Headnotes: A headnote further aids in the purpose of a title and displays more information about
the table. Generally, headnotes present the units of data in brackets at the end of a table title.
 Stubs: These are titles of the rows in a table. Thus a stub display information about the data
contained in a particular row.
 Caption: A caption is the title of a column in the data table. In fact, it is a counterpart if a stub and
indicates the information contained in a column.
 Body or field: The body of a table is the content of a table in its entirety. Each item in a body is
known as a ‘cell’.
 Footnotes: Footnotes are rarely used. In effect, they supplement the title of a table if required.
 Source: When using data obtained from a secondary source, this source has to be mentioned
below the footnote.

Construction of Data Tables

There are many ways for construction of a good table. However, some basic ideas are:
 The title should be in accordance with the objective of study: The title of a table should provide a
quick insight into the table.

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 Comparison: If there might arise a need to compare any two rows or columns then these might be
kept close to each other.
 Alternative location of stubs: If the rows in a data table are lengthy, then the stubs can be placed on
the right-hand side of the table.
 Headings: Headings should be written in a singular form.
 Footnote: A footnote should be given only if needed.
 Size of columns: Size of columns must be uniform and symmetrical.
 Use of abbreviations: Headings and sub-headings should be free of abbreviations.
 Units: There should be a clear specification of units above the columns.

The Advantages of Tabular Presentation

 Ease of representation: A large amount of data can be easily confined in a data table. Evidently, it
is the simplest form of data presentation.
 Ease of analysis: Data tables are frequently used for statistical analysis like calculation of central
tendency, dispersion etc.
 Helps in comparison: In a data table, the rows and columns which are required to be compared can
be placed next to each other. To point out, this facilitates comparison as it becomes easy to
compare each value.
 Economical: Construction of a data table is fairly easy and presents the data in a manner which is
really easy on the eyes of a reader. Moreover, it saves time as well as space.

Limitations of a Tabular Presentation

There are certain drawbacks to a table presentation of data that have been mentioned below:
 Incapable of Presenting Individual Items
Individual items are not presented distinctly. A tabular presentation shows data in an aggregated
manner.
 Lacks Description 
In a tabular presentation, it is the only figures that are shown. Tables are unable to list the attributes
of those figures. Furthermore, the qualitative aspects of figures cannot be mentioned.
 Needs Special Knowledge
A layperson will be unable to decipher the complexities mentioned in the figures in a tabular
presentation. It can only be understood and analyzed by someone who has the requisite knowledge.

Classification of Data and Tabular Presentation

Qualitative Classification
In this classification, data in a table is classified on the basis of qualitative attributes. In other words, if the
data contained attributes that cannot be quantified like rural-urban, boys-girls etc. it can be identified as a qualitative
classification of data.

Sex Roman Catholic Muslim

Male 200 390

Female 167 100

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LGBTQi 123 0

Quantitative Classification
In quantitative classification, data is classified on basis of quantitative attributes.

Scores No. of Students

0-25 11

26-50 35

51-75 58

76-100 29

Temporal Classification
Here data is classified according to time. Thus when data is mentioned with respect to different time frames, we
term such a classification as temporal.

Year Sales

2016 10,000

2017 12,500

2018 15,700

2019 16,900

2020 5,850

Spatial Classification
When data is classified according to a location, it becomes a spatial classification.

No. of COVID 19
Cities / Provinces
cases (daily)

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Quezon City 3,587

Manila 3,209

Davao City 3,199

Cebu City 2,870

Batangas 2,002

4. Graphical Presentation
Graphic presentation represents a highly developed body of techniques for elucidating, interpreting, and
analyzing numerical facts by means of points, lines, areas, and other geometric forms and symbols. It is a
way of analyzing numerical data. It exhibits the relation between data, ideas, information and concepts in a
diagram.

Advantages of Graphic Presentation:

 Simplicity in reading the data: It is an efficient method of showing large numbers of observations.
 The results are more easily remembered. A visual impression is more permanent than sets of figures of
words.
 Completeness in presentation. Complex relationships can be demonstrated easily and quickly so that
the whole situation is presented simultaneously.
 Clarity and emphasis in presentation. By the use of color and other devices, one can emphasize certain
places. For example, a rising death rate might be pictured in red to bring out the aspect of danger
involved.
 Popular appeal. One need not consult surveys or psychological test results to learn that the table of
statistical data may be quickly skipped over but a lively chart will attract and a certain amount of
learning.

There are different types of graphical representation. Some of them are as follows:
 Line Graphs – Line graph or the linear graph is used to display the continuous data and it is useful for
predicting future events over time.
 Bar Graphs – Bar Graph is used to display the category of data and it compares the data using solid
bars to represent the quantities.
 Histograms – The graph that uses bars to represent the frequency of numerical data that are organized
into intervals. Since all the intervals are equal and continuous, all the bars have the same width.
 Line Plot – It shows the frequency of data on a given number line. ‘ x ‘ is placed above a number line
each time when that data occurs again.
 Frequency Table – The table shows the number of pieces of data that falls within the given interval.
 Circle Graph – Also known as the pie chart that shows the relationships of the parts of the whole. The
circle is considered with 100% and the categories occupied is represented with that specific percentage
like 15%, 56%, etc.

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 Stem and Leaf Plot – In the stem and leaf plot, the data are organized from least value to the greatest
value. The digits of the least place values from the leaves and the next place value digit forms the
stems.
 Box and Whisker Plot – The plot diagram summarizes the data by dividing into four parts. Box and
whisker show the range (spread) and the middle ( median) of the data.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1: Let’s Apply

I – Let’s Apply.

1. Discuss the table below on demographic profiles of elementary pupils subjected to health and sanitation
practices, using textual presentation.

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Demographic profiles of elementary students

  Frequency Percent
Male 119 47.8
Sex
Female 130 52.2
9 years old 101 40.6
Age 10 years old 138 55.4
11 years old 10 4.0
1 87 34.9
2 55 22.1
Number of
3 60 24.1
Siblings in the
4 26 10.4
Family
5 17 6.8
6 4 1.6

2. Present the following statement in tabular form and identify what kind of tabular presentation is being use.
Further explain your tabular presentation.
a. “There were 46 pupils who are Roman Catholic, 29 identified themselves as Muslims, 28 are
Christians, 15 Iglesia ni Cristo and 5 Seventh Day Adventists.”
b. Most typhoon visited places in the Philippines annually, 18 typhoons Catanduanes, 14 -
Batanes, 12 – Quezon Province, 10 – Albay, 9 – Batangas, 8 - Pangasinan, 7 – Davao, and 6 –
Polilio Island.
c. The following are test scores of students out of the 40 test items problem solving, 25 students –
34 points, 48 students – 27 points, 6 students – 15 points, 2 students – 8 points and 4 students
– 3 points.
d. No. of tourists visiting The Hundred Island in various years 2016 – 306,185 tourist, 2017 –
387,012; year 2018 – 429,008; year 2019 – 609,560; year 2020 – 12,096 tourists.

3. Using MS Excel, make sample data and create at least one graph along the following:
 Bar graph
 Line graph
 Circle graph
*Add labels to your graphs.

Quantitative Analysis and Interpretation

B. Quantitative Analysis and Interpretation

Quantitative data is defined as the value of data in the form of counts or numbers where each data-set has
an unique numerical value associated with it. This data is any quantifiable information that can be used for
mathematical calculations and statistical analysis, such that real-life decisions can be made based on these
mathematical derivations. Quantitative data is used to answer questions such as “How many?”, “How often?”,
“How much?”. 
Data collection is defined as the procedure of collecting, measuring and analyzing accurate insights for
research using standard validated techniques. A teacher can evaluate their hypothesis on the basis of collected
data. In most cases, data collection is the primary and most important step for research, irrespective of the field
of research. The approach of data collection is different for different fields of study, depending on the required
information.

1. Levels of measurement

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 Nominal level of measurement.  In this level of measurement, the numbers in the variable are used only to
classify the data.  In this level of measurement, words, letters, and alpha-numeric symbols can be used.
Suppose there are data about people belonging to three different gender categories. In this case, the
person belonging to the female gender could be classified as F, the person belonging to the male gender
could be classified as M, and transgendered classified as T.  This type of assigning classification is
nominal level of measurement.
 Ordinal level of measurement.  This level of measurement depicts some ordered relationship among the
variable’s observations.  Suppose a student scores the highest grade of 100 in the class.  In this case, he
would be assigned the first rank.  Then, another classmate scores the second highest grade of an 92; she
would be assigned the second rank.  A third student scores a 81 and he would be assigned the third rank,
and so on.   The ordinal level of measurement indicates an ordering of the measurements.
 Interval level of measurement.  The interval level of measurement not only classifies and orders the
measurements, but it also specifies that the distances between each interval on the scale are equivalent
along the scale from low interval to high interval.  For example, an interval level of measurement could be
the measurement of anxiety in a student between the score of 10 and 11, this interval is the same as that
of a student who scores between 40 and 41.   A popular example of this level of measurement
is temperature in centigrade, where, for example, the distance between 94 0C and 960C is the same as the
distance between 1000C and 102 0C.
 Ratio level of measurement.  In this level of measurement, the observations, in addition to having equal
intervals, can have a value of zero as well.  The zero in the scale makes this type of measurement unlike
the other types of measurement, although the properties are similar to that of the interval level of
measurement.  In the ratio level of measurement, the divisions between the points on the scale have an
equivalent distance between them.

The researcher should note that among these levels of measurement, the nominal level is simply used to
classify data, whereas the levels of measurement described by the interval level and the ratio level are much
more exact.

2. Measures of central tendency

Introduction
A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the
central position within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called measures
of central location. They are also classed as summary statistics. The mean (often called the average) is most
likely the measure of central tendency that you are most familiar with, but there are others, such as the median
and the mode.
The mean, median and mode are all valid measures of central tendency, but under different conditions,
some measures of central tendency become more appropriate to use than others. In the following sections, we
will look at the mean, mode and median, and learn how to calculate them and under what conditions they are
most appropriate to be used.
Mean (Arithmetic)
The mean (or average) is the most popular and well known measure of central tendency. It can be used
with both discrete and continuous data, although its use is most often with continuous data (see our  Types of
Variable guide for data types). The mean is equal to the sum of all the values in the data set divided by the
number of values in the data set. So, if we have n values in a data set and they have values x1,x2, …,xn, the
sample mean, usually denoted by x― (pronounced "x bar"), is:

x―=x1+x2+⋯+xnn

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This formula is usually written in a slightly different manner using the Greek capitol letter,  ∑,
pronounced "sigma", which means "sum of...":
x―=∑xn

You may have noticed that the above formula refers to the sample mean. So, why have we called it a
sample mean? This is because, in statistics, samples and populations have very different meanings and these
differences are very important, even if, in the case of the mean, they are calculated in the same way. To
acknowledge that we are calculating the population mean and not the sample mean, we use the Greek lower
case letter "mu", denoted as μ:
μ=∑xn

The mean is essentially a model of your data set. It is the value that is most common. You will notice,
however, that the mean is not often one of the actual values that you have observed in your data set. However,
one of its important properties is that it minimizes error in the prediction of any one value in your data set. That
is, it is the value that produces the lowest amount of error from all other values in the data set.

An important property of the mean is that it includes every value in your data set as part of the
calculation. In addition, the mean is the only measure of central tendency where the sum of the deviations of
each value from the mean is always zero.

When not to use the mean

The mean has one main disadvantage: it is particularly susceptible to the influence of outliers. These
are values that are unusual compared to the rest of the data set by being especially small or large in numerical
value. For example, consider the wages of staff at a factory below:

Staff 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Salary 15k 18k 16k 14k 15k 15k 12k 17k 90k 95k

The mean salary for these ten staff is P30.7k. However, inspecting the raw data suggests that this
mean value might not be the best way to accurately reflect the typical salary of a worker, as most workers have
salaries in the P12k to 18k range. The mean is being skewed by the two large salaries. Therefore, in this
situation, we would like to have a better measure of central tendency. As we will find out later, taking the
median would be a better measure of central tendency in this situation.

Another time when we usually prefer the median over the mean (or mode) is when our data is skewed
(i.e., the frequency distribution for our data is skewed). If we consider the normal distribution - as this is the
most frequently assessed in statistics - when the data is perfectly normal, the mean, median and mode are
identical. Moreover, they all represent the most typical value in the data set. However, as the data becomes
skewed the mean loses its ability to provide the best central location for the data because the skewed data is
dragging it away from the typical value. However, the median best retains this position and is not as strongly
influenced by the skewed values. This is explained in more detail in the skewed distribution section later in this
guide.
Median
The median is the middle score for a set of data that has been arranged in order of magnitude. The
median is less affected by outliers and skewed data. In order to calculate the median, suppose we have the
data below:

65 55 89 56 35 14 56 55 87 45 92

We first need to rearrange that data into order of magnitude (smallest first):

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14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89 92

Our median mark is the middle mark - in this case, 56 (highlighted in bold). It is the middle mark
because there are 5 scores before it and 5 scores after it. This works fine when you have an odd number of
scores, but what happens when you have an even number of scores? What if you had only 10 scores? Well,
you simply have to take the middle two scores and average the result. So, if we look at the example below:

65 55 89 56 35 14 56 55 87 45

We again rearrange that data into order of magnitude (smallest first):

14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89
Only now we have to take the 5th and 6th score in our data set and average them to get a median of 55.5.

Mode
The mode is the most frequent score in our data set. On a histogram it represents the highest bar in a
bar chart or histogram. You can, therefore, sometimes consider the mode as being the most popular option. An
example of a mode is presented below:

Normally, the mode is used for categorical data where we wish to know which is the most common
category, as illustrated below:

We can see above that the most common form of transport, in this particular data set, is the bus.
However, one of the problems with the mode is that it is not unique, so it leaves us with problems when we
have two or more values that share the highest frequency, such as below:

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We are now stuck as to which mode best describes the central tendency of the data. This is particularly
problematic when we have continuous data because we are more likely not to have any one value that is more
frequent than the other. For example, consider measuring 30 peoples' weight (to the nearest 0.1 kg). How likely
is it that we will find two or more people with exactly the same weight (e.g., 67.4 kg)? The answer, is probably
very unlikely - many people might be close, but with such a small sample (30 people) and a large range of
possible weights, you are unlikely to find two people with exactly the same weight; that is, to the nearest 0.1 kg.
This is why the mode is very rarely used with continuous data.
Another problem with the mode is that it will not provide us with a very good measure of central
tendency when the most common mark is far away from the rest of the data in the data set, as depicted in the
diagram below:

In the above diagram the mode has a value of 2. We can clearly see, however, that the mode is not
representative of the data, which is mostly concentrated around the 20 to 30 value range. To use the mode to
describe the central tendency of this data set would be misleading.

Skewed Distributions and the Mean and Median

We often test whether our data is normally distributed because this is a common assumption underlying
many statistical tests. An example of a normally distributed set of data is presented below:

When you have a normally distributed sample you can legitimately use both the mean or the median as
your measure of central tendency. In fact, in any symmetrical distribution the mean, median and mode are
equal. However, in this situation, the mean is widely preferred as the best measure of central tendency because
it is the measure that includes all the values in the data set for its calculation, and any change in any of the
scores will affect the value of the mean. This is not the case with the median or mode.

However, when our data is skewed, for example, as with the right-skewed data set below:

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We find that the mean is being dragged in the direct of the skew. In these situations, the median is
generally considered to be the best representative of the central location of the data. The more skewed the
distribution, the greater the difference between the median and mean, and the greater emphasis should be
placed on using the median as opposed to the mean. A classic example of the above right-skewed distribution
is income (salary), where higher-earners provide a false representation of the typical income if expressed as a
mean and not a median.

If dealing with a normal distribution, and tests of normality show that the data is non-normal, it is
customary to use the median instead of the mean. However, this is more a rule of thumb than a strict guideline.
Sometimes, researchers wish to report the mean of a skewed distribution if the median and mean are not
appreciably different (a subjective assessment), and if it allows easier comparisons to previous research to be
made.

Summary of when to use the mean, median and mode

Please use the following summary table to know what the best measure of central tendency is with
respect to the different types of variable.
Type of Variable Best measure of central tendency
Nominal Mode
Ordinal Median
Interval/Ratio (not skewed) Mean
Interval/Ratio (skewed) Median

3. Measures of variability

WHAT IS VARIABILITY?

Variability refers to how "spread out" a group of scores is. To see what we mean by spread out consider
graphs in Figure 1. These graphs represent the scores on two quizzes. The mean score for each quiz is 7.0.
Despite the equality of means, you can see that the distributions are quite different. Specifically, the scores on
Quiz 1 are more densely packed and those on Quiz 2 are more spread out. The differences among students
were much greater on Quiz 2 than on Quiz 1.

Quiz 1 Quiz 2

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Figure 1. Bar charts of two quizzes.

The terms variability, spread, and dispersion are synonyms, and refer to how spread out a distribution
is. Just as in the section on central tendency where we discussed measures of the center of a distribution of
scores, in this chapter we will discuss measures of the variability of a distribution. There are four frequently
used measures of variability: the range, interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation. In the next few
paragraphs, we will look at each of these four measures of variability in more detail.

RANGE
The range is the simplest measure of variability to calculate, and one you have probably encountered many
times in your life. The range is simply the highest score minus the lowest score. Let’s take a few examples.
What is the range of the following group of numbers: 10, 2, 5, 6, 7, 3, 4? Well, the highest number is 10, and
the lowest number is 2, so 10 - 2 = 8. The range is 8. Let’s take another example. Here’s a dataset with 10
numbers: 99, 45, 23, 67, 45, 91, 82, 78, 62, 51. What is the range? The highest number is 99 and the lowest
number is 23, so 99 - 23 equals 76; the range is 76. Now consider the two quizzes shown in Figure 1. On Quiz
1, the lowest score is 5 and the highest score is 9. Therefore, the range is 4. The range on Quiz 2 was larger:
the lowest score was 4 and the highest score was 10. Therefore the range is 6.

INTERQUARTILE RANGE
The interquartile range (IQR) is the range of the middle 50% of the scores in a distribution. It is
computed as follows:
IQR = 75th percentile - 25th percentile
For Quiz 1, the 75th percentile is 8 and the 25th percentile is 6. The interquartile range is therefore 2.
For Quiz 2, which has greater spread, the 75th percentile is 9, the 25th percentile is 5, and the interquartile
range is 4. Recall that in the discussion of box plots, the 75th percentile was called the upper hinge and the
25th percentile was called the lower hinge. Using this terminology, the interquartile range is referred to as
the H-spread.

A related measure of variability is called the semi-interquartile range. The semi-interquartile range is

defined simply as the interquartile range divided by 2. If a distribution is symmetric, the median plus or minus
the semi-interquartile range contains half the scores in the distribution.

VARIANCE
Variability can also be defined in terms of how close the scores in the distribution are to the middle of
the distribution. Using the mean as the measure of the middle of the distribution, the variance is defined as the
average squared difference of the scores from the mean. The data from Quiz 1 are shown in Table 1. The mean
score is 7.0. Therefore, the column "Deviation from Mean" contains the score minus 7. The column "Squared
Deviation" is simply the previous column squared.

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Table 1. Calculation of Variance for Quiz 1 scores.

Scores Deviation from Mean Squared Deviation
9 2 4
9 2 4
9 2 4
8 1 1
8 1 1
8 1 1
8 1 1
7 0 0
7 0 0
7 0 0
7 0 0
7 0 0
6 -1 1
6 -1 1
6 -1 1
6 -1 1
6 -1 1
6 -1 1
5 -2 4
5 -2 4
Means
7 0 1.5
One thing that is important to notice is that the mean deviation from the mean is 0. This will always be
the case. The mean of the squared deviations is 1.5. Therefore, the variance is 1.5. Analogous calculations with
Quiz 2 show that its variance is 6.7. The formula for the variance is:

where σ2 is the variance, μ is the mean, and N is the number of numbers. For Quiz 1, μ = 7 and N = 20.

If the variance in a sample is used to estimate the variance in a population, then the previous formula
underestimates the variance and the following formula should be used:

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where s2 is the estimate of the variance and M is the sample mean. Note that M is the mean of a sample taken
from a population with a mean of μ. Since, in practice, the variance is usually computed in a sample, this
formula is most often used. The simulation "estimating variance" illustrates the bias in the formula with N in the
denominator.
Let's take a concrete example. Assume the scores 1, 2, 4, and 5 were sampled from a larger population.
To estimate the variance in the population you would compute s 2 as follows:
 M = (1 + 2 + 4 + 5)/4 = 12/4 = 3.
s2 = [(1-3)2 + (2-3)2 + (4-3)2 + (5-3)2]/(4-1)
   = (4 + 1 + 1 + 4)/3 = 10/3 = 3.333

There are alternate formulas that can be easier to use if you are doing your calculations with a hand
calculator. You should note that these formulas are subject to rounding error if your values are very large and/or
you have an extremely large number of observations.

and

For this example,

STANDARD DEVIATION
The standard deviation is simply the square root of the variance. This makes the standard deviations of
the two quiz distributions 1.257 and 2.203. The standard deviation is an especially useful measure of variability
when the distribution is normal or approximately normal because the proportion of the distribution within a given
number of standard deviations from the mean can be calculated. For example, 68% of the distribution is within
one standard deviation of the mean and approximately 95% of the distribution is within two standard deviations
of the mean. Therefore, if you had a normal distribution with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10, then
68% of the distribution would be between 50 - 10 = 40 and 50 +10 =60. Similarly, about 95% of the distribution
would be between 50 - 2 x 10 = 30 and 50 + 2 x 10 = 70. The symbol for the population standard deviation is σ;
the symbol for an estimate computed in a sample is s. Figure 2 shows two normal distributions. The red
distribution has a mean of 40 and a standard deviation of 5; the blue distribution has a mean of 60 and a
standard deviation of 10. For the red distribution, 68% of the distribution is between 35 and 45; for the blue
distribution, 68% is between 50 and 70.

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Figure 2. Normal distributions with standard deviations of 5 and 10.

4. Measures of relative position

Percentile

Percentile scores for individual test takers represent how an individual test taker’s score compares to the
scores of other test takers within a particular comparison group. Percentile scores range from the 1st  through
99th percentile, indicating the percentage of scores in the comparison group which are lower than the test
taker’s score. For example, if your scores report says that a test taker with a Mathematics Skills Overall score of
19 is in the 67th percentile, this means that this test taker has tested better than 66% of the test takers
compared to an aggregated sample of test takers like themselves. As the teacher, you choose the comparison
group when you make a test assignment for your pupils or students.

Example explaining what a percentile means

To understand what “percentile” refers to, consider something familiar, like basketball.
Imagine a 7th grade girl who is considered “a really good junior high hoops player.” As compared to other
girls at her same grade level who also play basketball, we might describe her high quality playing as “better
than 90 out of 100”.  That puts her at the 90th percentile in that comparison group.

But if we change the comparison group, that “top 10 percent” comparison will not apply.  The girl may be
“better than only 5 out of 100” tenth-grade-girls-who-play-junior-varsity-basketball.  Now, instead of being at the
90th percentile, she is at the 5th percentile.  Nothing about her basketball skills has changed.  She is just as good
a hoops player as ever.  If she could make 55% of her free throws before the comparison, she still can make
55%.  But, because percentiles are relative to the comparison group, her percentile has changed. Or, better
said, her percentile as compared to one group is simply different than her percentile as compared to another
group.

 Quartiles are values that divide your data into quarters. However, quartiles aren’t shaped like pizza slices;
Instead they divide your data into four segments according to where the numbers fall on the number line. The
four quarters that divide a data set into quartiles are:
1. The lowest 25% of numbers.
2. The next lowest 25% of numbers (up to the median).
3. The second highest 25% of numbers (above the median).
4. The highest 25% of numbers.

Example: Divide the following data set into quartiles: 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 22, 13, 14, 16, 65, 45, 12.

Step 1: Put the numbers in order: 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 13, 14, 16, 22, 45, 65.
Step 2: Count how many numbers there are in your set and then divide by 4 to cut the list of numbers into
quarters. There are 12 numbers in this set, so you would have 3 numbers in each quartile.
2, 5, 6, | 7, 10, 12 | 13, 14, 16, | 22, 45, 65

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If you have an uneven set of numbers, it’s OK to slice a number down the middle. This  can get a little
tricky (imagine trying to divide 10, 13, 17, 19, 21 into quarters!), so you may want to use an  online interquartile
range calculator to figure those quartiles out for you. The calculator gives you the 25th Percentile, which is the
end of the first quartile, the 50th Percentile which is the end of the second quartile (or the median) and the 75th
Percentile, which is the end of the third quartile. For 10, 13, 17, 19 and 21 the results are:

25th Percentile: 11.5

50th Percentile: 17
75th Percentile: 20
Interquartile Range: 8.5.

Why do we need quartiles in education? The main reason is to perform further calculations, like
the interquartile range, which is a measure of how the data is spread out around the mean.

Z-Score
A z-score describes the position of a raw score in terms of its distance from the mean, when measured
in standard deviation units. The z-score is positive if the value lies above the mean, and negative if it lies below
the mean.
It is also known as a standard score, because it allows comparison of scores on different kinds of
variables by standardizing the distribution. A standard normal distribution (SND) is a normally shaped
distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation (SD) of 1 (see Fig. 1).

Why are z-scores important?

It is useful to standardized the values (raw scores) of a normal distribution by converting them into z-
scores because:
(a) it allows researchers to calculate the probability of a score occurring within a standard normal
distribution;
(b) and enables us to compare two scores that are from different samples (which may have different
means and standard deviations).

How do you calculate the z-score?

The formula for calculating a z-score is is z = (x-μ)/σ, where x is the raw score, μ is the population
mean, and σ is the population standard deviation.
As the formula shows, the z-score is simply the raw score minus the population mean, divided by the
population standard deviation.

Figure 2. Z-score formula in a population.

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When the population mean and the population standard deviation are unknown, the standard score
may be calculated using the sample mean (x̄) and sample standard deviation (s) as estimates of the population
values.

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How do you interpret a z-score?

The value of the z-score tells you how many standard deviations you are away from the mean. If a z-
score is equal to 0, it is on the mean.
A positive z-score indicates the raw score is higher than the mean average. For example, if a z-score is
equal to +1, it is 1 standard deviation above the mean.
A negative z-score reveals the raw score is below the mean average. For example, if a z-score is equal
to -2, it is 2 standard deviations below the mean.
Another way to interpret z-scores is by creating a standard normal distribution (also known as the z-
score distribution or probability distribution).
LEARNING ACTIVITY 2: Let’s ponder on these!

1. What is the importance of the different measures of central tendency in assessing the performance of the
students in the classroom?
2. When do we use mean, median, and mode?
3. What are the properties of mean, median, and mode?
4. Why do mean, median, and mode useful in interpreting the performance of the students?
5. With the presence of extreme scores in the distribution, what measure of central tendency is more
appropriate to interpret the result?
6. If the scores of the students in the test are distributed normally, what measure of central tendency would
best describe their performance?
7. What measure of central tendency is easily affected by extreme scores?
8. If the scores of the students are not normally distributed, what measure of central tendency is more
appropriate to describe their performance?
SUMMARY

Assessment of students’ work is critically important as it is an approach designed to help teachers find
out what students are learning inside the classroom and how well they are learning it. Assessing student
performance is a critical responsibility of teachers, using it improves teaching and learning. Data collected from
learners can be presented in various ways, like textual, tabular and graphical, all in ways simplifies and
congregate better understanding of test results. Educators must be equipped with skills on how to process
quantitative data. These analyses and interpretation tools give a better look on how educators improve teaching
- learning delivery and informed decisions to determine outcomes success.
REFERENCES

 Navarro, R.L. & Santos, R.G. (2012) Authentic Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
(Assessment 1), 2e. Lorimar Publishing, Inc., Quezon City, Philippines.
 https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/practice/improve/Pages/
eitinterpret.aspx
 https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/ETD-TTU-2010-12-1204/LEE-THESIS.pdf?sequence=2
 http://researcharticles.com/index.php/textual-presentation-of-data/
 https://www.vedantu.com/commerce/textual-and-tabular-presentation-of-data
 https://byjus.com/commerce/tabular-presentation-of-data/
 https://www.onlinemath4all.com/tabular-presentation-of-data.html
 https://www.statisticssolutions.com/dissertation-resources/descriptive-statistics/data-levels-of-
measurement/
 https://www.questionpro.com/blog/quantitative-data/
 https://statistics.laerd.com/statistical-guides/measures-central-tendency-mean-mode-median.php
 https://onlinestatbook.com/2/summarizing_distributions/variability.html

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 https://www.anthonypicciano.com/measures-of-relative-position/
 https://www.insightassessment.com/article/what-is-a-percentile-score
 https://www.statisticshowto.com/what-are-quartiles/
 https://www.simplypsychology.org/z-score.html

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