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:

  1. The outlier adjustment is not implemented unless there are more than two readers.
  2. To qualify as an outlier, a rank must be more than twice the value of the next highest rank.
  3. The adjusted rank is calculated by taking the average of the non-outlier ranks, adding the outlier rank, and dividing by 2.
  4. All decimals are dropped.

This outlier adjustment system has resulted in results that more accurately reflect the quality of student writing.