Does a decline in scholastic achievement scores reflect the fact?

What is it about?

Schoolteachers, parents, as well as students themselves feel happy when their scholastic scores rise, and become disappointed when they go down. However, even if the standardized scores show declining tendencies, it does not reflect the reality. We have found that declines of the standardized scores in mid-range pupils are illusionary. Schoolteachers should explain this phenomenon to their pupils so that they would not be discouraged with the illusionary declines.

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Why is it important?

The standardized scores have been believed to show the actual achievement levels irrespective of the test difficulty. However, even the standardized scores deceive us especially for the scores of mid-range pupils. The distributions of standardized scores tend to be biased in the beginning of school terms. The bias is gradually rectified in the later periods. This gradual change in the distribution causes the illusionary declines in the scores of mid-range students.