The Effective use of Standard Scores for Research in Educational Management

This study explained the use of standard scores otherwise known as z scores for research in educational management. Since a score is a unit distance between two limits, the individual given a score in percentage might have actually scored between the lower limit and the upper limit of that score. A score therefore represent the mid-point between the lower limit and the upper limit of the score. Therefore, standard score is a derived score that expresses how far a raw score is from some reference point such as the mean in terms of standard deviation units. It is useful in educational management as it gives an accurate definition of the score especially in data analysis. Although standard scores always assume a normal distribution, but if this assumption is not met, the scores cannot be interpreted as a standard proportion of the distribution from which they were calculated. However, standard or z scores can be used to compare raw scores that are taken from different tests especially when the data are at the interval level of measurement.