Adjusting Outliers
Outlier ranks can skew results, leaving unrecognized a student or team that should receive a placement medal.
To address this concern, our online scoring system adjusts these outlier ranks downward, bringing them more in line with the other judges’ ranks. Here is how it works:
- The outlier adjustment is not implemented unless there are more than two readers.
- To qualify as an outlier, a rank must be more than twice the value of the next highest rank.
- The adjusted rank is calculated by taking the average of the non-outlier ranks, adding the outlier rank, and dividing by 2.
- All decimals are dropped.
This outlier adjustment system has resulted in results that more accurately reflect the quality of student writing.