The Spring 2013 release of SIMS introduces a new ‘median’ and ‘median grade’ to each summary rows. To see the median, simply click the ‘Summary’ button at the top of any marksheet to display the summary rows towards the bottom of the marksheet. Any column that shows a number or a grade will now also show the median value, alongside the existing mean (or average) summary.
If you’re a non-mathematician (like me) you’ll probably need a bit of help with the definition of median. As I understand it, you can use the mean value when the data is evenly spread. But a few unusual results (outliers) can skew the mean, making it unreliable. The median is just the middle value of a set of results and is not skewed by exceptionally high or low results. The DfE have a good definition of the difference here.
Hi, can you tell me how we could use the new ‘Median’ summary in an individual report?
Thanks
Hi Zara – the short answer is that we can’t. In fact none of the values in the summary columns are available to us in individual pupil reports. You could try calculating the median value in an aspect – although I’m not sure which formula would return a mean value. Maybe one of the readers of this blog could suggest a formula?