What is a stanine?

A stanine is a nine-point scale used for scaling scores, which categorizes an individual's performance into one of nine distinct levels. Each level, or "stanine," ranges from 1 to 9, with 5 representing the average performance. This scale allows educators and psychologists to easily interpret and compare student scores to the expected levels of performance, facilitating a better understanding of how an individual student stands relative to their peers. Stanines are commonly used in educational settings to provide a more digestible way of evaluating student assessments compared to raw scores.

This method is particularly helpful in large groups, as it compresses a wide range of scores into a manageable format that can highlight nuances in performance without getting bogged down in the details of every possible score.