evaluationsranging

Evaluationsranging is a methodological approach in data analysis and evaluation in which individual evaluation scores are grouped into predefined intervals or ranges. This binning process converts continuous or ordinal data into a categorical representation, facilitating simpler reporting, visualization, and comparison across items, time periods, or stakeholder groups. The term may appear in organizational guidelines or statistical discussions as a descriptive label for discretizing scores into bins.

Process and implementation typically involve defining the range intervals, collecting evaluation scores, mapping each score to the appropriate range, and then analyzing the distribution of evaluations across ranges. Analysts may report the frequency of evaluations per range, use the midpoints of ranges as a summary statistic, and apply range-based thresholds to support decision rules or prioritization. The approach can be applied at multiple levels, such as item-level assessments, process audits, or survey results.

Advantages of evaluationsranging include simplicity and interpretability, resilience to minor measurement noise, and the ability to present results in straightforward categories that align with governance or policy thresholds. It can also facilitate rapid comparisons and dashboards where exact scores are less critical than their category.

Limitations include loss of precision due to discretization, sensitivity to the choice of range boundaries, and potential bias near cutpoints. The method may obscure nuances in data and obscure trends that lie within a range. Proper range design, validation, and sensitivity analysis are important to mitigate these issues.

See also binning, discretization, ordinal data, and data categorization.