If you use 360 Access to review CTP or Milestones results, soon you may notice a new option when viewing national norm comparisons: Updated National Norm. Here’s what that means, how it came to be, and how to use it well.
What are national norms, and why do they matter?
When your students take the CTP or Milestones assessments, their scores can be compared against several different groups. These other groups include other independent school students and a nationally representative group of all U.S. students. That national comparison group is what we call the National Norm.
The National Norm gives schools a broader lens. Even if your students consistently score well against other independent school peers, it can be meaningful to understand where they stand relative to the national student population. That context matters for conversations with families, curriculum planning, and understanding student growth in a wider frame.
How national norms are created
Establishing a National Norm requires a large-scale study, one that recruits a nationally representative sample of students across school types, geographic regions, and demographics. It’s a massive undertaking, and one that you probably imagine is difficult to repeat annually.
This is the exact kind of rigorous study that was used to establish the national norm you’ve been using with ERB. Thousands of students across hundreds of schools participated, with results carefully weighted to reflect the full diversity of the U.S. student population.
A more innovative approach
E3n opted to develop a more innovative and sustainable approach to updating the national norms. This new approach involved creating a link between our CTP national norms study and NAEP’s 2002 national norm sample, estimating a full set of 2024 NEAP national norms from this information, and using that to generate our updated norms.
Not only is NEAP considered the gold standard for measuring national student performance in the U.S., it is known as The Nation’s Report Card. Published every two years, it represents the most authoritative ongoing measure of how U.S. students are performing in reading comprehension and mathematics.
What we observed
Through this process, we noticed something. National reading performance has declined since the original National Norm was established. What that means in practice is that for the same CTP reading score, you may see a higher national percentile under the 2024 norm than you did under the original. That’s not a change in your students’ performance; it simply reflects that the national reference point has shifted.
For mathematics, the picture is more nuanced and varies by grade level and score range.
How to get the most out of the updated norms
It may be helpful to keep a few things in mind as you begin using the Updated National Norm:
These are approximate norms, but they are built on sound statistical methods. They are best used as contextual information, like a meaningful data point instead of a precise measurement. It’s best to avoid reading too much into small differences in national percentiles from one student to the next.
Both norm versions remain available in 360 Access. The original National Norm is still accessible, just renamed to Legacy National Norm. Having both available gives your school flexibility in how you interpret results.
Use the national norms alongside independent school norms. For most member schools, the independent school norm remains the most relevant primary comparison. National norms just add a useful layer of context on top of that.
Looking ahead
Because this approach links to NAEP, E3n now has the ability to update national norms more frequently. This helps ensure you can compare your students against a national reference group, one that reflects the current reality of national student performance. That’s a meaningful enhancement!
As always, if you have questions about how to interpret national norm results for your students, our teams are here to help. Email us at insights@erblearn.org to get in touch.
