Test Results Definitions
Number Enrolled—This is a count of students in the selected entity (that is, state, county, district, school, or student group)
who were eligible to take the CAST in grade five, grade eight, and high school (grades ten, eleven, and twelve).
Number Tested—This is a count of students in the selected entity (that is, state, county, district, school, or student group)
who were administered the CAST. This number excludes students not tested by parent/guardian request, students not tested because of a
significant medical emergency, and students who were assigned to take the assessment, but did not test.
Number of Tests with Valid Scores—This is a count of students tested in the selected entity
(that is, state, county, district, school, or student group) who responded to enough questions on the assessment
to generate a valid score. Scores that are invalidated are not included in this aggregation.
Mean Scale Score—This is the sum of scale scores for students with valid scores in the selected entity (that is, state, county,
district, school, or student group) divided by the Number of Tests with Valid Scores.
For more information, please visit the Scale Score Ranges web page.
CAST Reporting Domain Descriptors
Area (Science Domain) Descriptors
The above, near, and below standard categories were identified by using the distance a student's performance
on the questions related to that science domain is from the Level 3 "Standard Met" achievement level criterion.
The science domain achievement category indicates the score on a science domain as follows:
- If the scale score of a science domain is above the "Standard Met" achievement level on the overall CAST, the achievement category for the science domain is "Above Standard."
- If the scale score of a science domain is at or near the "Standard Met" achievement level on the overall CAST, the achievement category for the science domain is "Near Standard."
- If the scale score of a science domain is below the "Standard Met" achievement level on the overall CAST, the achievement category for the science domain is "Below Standard."