Achievement Levels--Five categories of achievement that represent the success students demonstrate with the content assessed on the FCAT SSS.

Benchmark--A specific statement that describes what students should know and be able to do. The benchmarks are part of the Sunshine State Standards (SSS).

Cluster--A grouping of related benchmarks from the SSS. Clusters are used to summarize and report achievement for the FCAT SSS Reading and FCAT Science.

Content Subscores--The number of raw score points earned by a student in each sub-content area of FCAT SSS Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Writing+ (multiple-choice questions only). Content subscores are reported for clusters in FCAT Reading and FCAT Science, for strands in FCAT Mathematics, and by reporting category in FCAT Writing+. For eample, in Mathematics, subscores are reported for number sense, measurement, geometry, algebra, and data analysis and probability.

Developmental Scale Score--A type of scale score used to determine a student's annual progress from grade to grade. The FCAT Developmental Scale for Reading and Mathematics ranges from 86 to 3008 across Grades 3-10. On the Student Report, the Developmental Scale Score is called the "FCAT Score."

Field Test--A "tryout" of items to collect information on how students respond to test questions. Statistics gathered through the field test are used to determine which items will appear on future operational tests. Scores are not provided to students from the field test.

National Percentile Rank (NPR)--A score that shows the percent of students who earned the same or a lower score. NPRs show the rank of an individual compared to the national sample of students or norm group. They do not compare an individual to Florida students who took the test.

Norm-Referenced Test (NRT)--A test designed to compare the performance of one group of students to the national sample of students, called the norm group.

Operational Test--A test intended to measure a student's knowledge in areas such as reading, mathematics, science, and writing. All items on an operational test have previously appeared on a field test. Student scores are reported for the operational test.

Raw Score--A score that reports the number of points a student earned on each test question. Students earn one raw score point for each correctly answered multiple-choice item or gridded-response item, and up to four raw score points on performance tasks. Raw scores are reported by content subscores.

Reporting Category--The reporting category subscores for FCAT Writing+ are similar to the content subscores in FCAT Reading, Mathematics, and Science. The Writing+ reporting category subscores are based on the number of points the student earned for the writing elements of focus, organization, support, and conventions.

Rubric--The scoring guidelines or criteria used to evaluate all FCAT performance tasks. The rubric describes what is required for each possible score point.

Scale Score--A score used to report test results on the entire test. FCAT SSS scale scores range from 100 to 500 for each grade level and content area. A computer program is used to analyze student responses and to compute the scale score. The Reading and Mathematics scale score is not provided on the Student and Parent Report. FCAT NRT scale scores are solely determined by raw score point totals.

Stanine--Standard scores that divide a distribution of scores into nine parts. The word stanine comes from the fact that it is a STAndard score on a scale of NINE units.

Strands--The broad divisions of content in the SSS. For example, in the Language Arts SSS there are seven strands (reading, writing, listening, viewing, speaking, language, and literature).

Sunshine State Standards (SSS)--Florida's curriculum framework that includes curriculum content areas, strands, standards, and benchmarks. The SSS provide guidelines for the educational curriculum in Florida.