SKL Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Last year I was doing a lot of extra work at home with Miss A, to remediate and help her develop better strategies for school work. I bought her a practice book for the standardized test, and she worked through it and got a solid result on the test. I didn't buy a practice book for Miss E, who is very bright and advanced (and doesn't like extra homework). Miss E didn't do so hot on the test. She claimed it was because the test was "boring." I know they do some test prep at school. Some of their school work is formatted like a standardized test for this purpose. I also feel a bit guilty knowing how much the prep work seems to have bolstered Miss A's test score. (Not that it got her anything, and the stress relief was worth it, but still.) Although test prep is more common nowadays, I'm not sure where it falls on the "ethical" continuum. This year, if I'm going to buy those books for 3rd grade, I need to do it now. But I'm not sure I want to. Do any of you do this, particularly for young kids who don't test well? Would you do it for one or both of these kids? I know analogies are going to be an issue for Miss A (if they test those in 3rd grade). She doesn't get the concept somehow. If I ask a certain way, she gets the right answer, but the way they ask on the test makes no sense to her. Maybe I should look for materials to practice those analogy questions? Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 We are required to test, so I just plan on my kids completing one Smarter Balanced practice test (it's available online) so they aren't blindsided or anxious during the actual test. I want them to know what they are facing. Other than that, I don't plan on prepping them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I do practice tests but only if it includes bubble sheets. I think kids need practice keeping on track with where they are at on the sheet. I have found that my kids actually learned some interesting things from the books that we hadn't covered, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Last year I was doing a lot of extra work at home with Miss A, to remediate and help her develop better strategies for school work. I bought her a practice book for the standardized test, and she worked through it and got a solid result on the test. I didn't buy a practice book for Miss E, who is very bright and advanced (and doesn't like extra homework). Miss E didn't do so hot on the test. She claimed it was because the test was "boring." I know they do some test prep at school. Some of their school work is formatted like a standardized test for this purpose. I also feel a bit guilty knowing how much the prep work seems to have bolstered Miss A's test score. (Not that it got her anything, and the stress relief was worth it, but still.) Although test prep is more common nowadays, I'm not sure where it falls on the "ethical" continuum. This year, if I'm going to buy those books for 3rd grade, I need to do it now. But I'm not sure I want to. Do any of you do this, particularly for young kids who don't test well? Would you do it for one or both of these kids? I know analogies are going to be an issue for Miss A (if they test those in 3rd grade). She doesn't get the concept somehow. If I ask a certain way, she gets the right answer, but the way they ask on the test makes no sense to her. Maybe I should look for materials to practice those analogy questions? Thoughts? Is it for placement or for the school's score? Is she below standard or just below her potential? I have decided I'm not going to prep my kid to get them one grade level above (gifted program). I will do that after school. I also am not going to waste home free outdoor / creative time on test prep if my child is not hurting her school's funding. I would test prep if my child was not meeting standards and that hurt the school, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Is it for placement or for the school's score? Is she below standard or just below her potential? I have decided I'm not going to prep my kid to get them one grade level above (gifted program). I will do that after school. I also am not going to waste home free outdoor / creative time on test prep if my child is not hurting her child's funding. I would test prep if my child was not meeting standards and that hurt the school, though. It isn't for placement, though a good score might help Miss E get into the gifted program. She is definitely scoring way below her potential. Last year (2nd grade) on the reading section, she scored about 3.0, which is similar to what she scored in KG. She reads several years above the level she tests at on these tests. (She has gotten worse every year. K she was 99th %ile on all of the main areas. 1st grade, 90%ile overall. 2nd grade, I don't even remember but it was below 90%ile. For Miss A, I just don't want to get pressure about her. She is a solid average student who has mild issues with certain things. Test taking isn't her forte. IIRC she scored ~50th %ile in KG, ~25th %ile in 1st grade, so I was worried about the 2nd grade tests. So we prepped and she did well. Now I'm not sure whether to worry about the 3rd grade tests or not. The average kid in their private school is well above average, so an "average" kid looks below average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 She has gotten worse every year. K she was 99th %ile on all of the main areas. 1st grade, 90%ile overall. 2nd grade, I don't even remember but it was below 90%ile. That sounds like typical regression to the mean for a child who is well prepared for kindergarten. Are your girls towards the older end of their class? If so then as the age difference becomes less significant (a smaller percentage of every child's age, i.e. 1 year is 20% of a kindergartener's life but only 10% of a fifth grader's life) the older kids get less of an age bump. But 25th% is getting kind of down there... is that for the state (you are in WA right?)? Since we lost our waiver there is a lot of pressure to have no child "left behind" so I could see the pressure aspect. Our school has a free test prep software login we might do. I think I'll pay them cash for it. Help your school, get paid. They should value learning but test prep isn't learning. It's training for a specific task. Not useless, certainly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I did prep last year for my DS, but it was for a Talent Search test outside of school and his school's standardized test was right after that. My DS scored really high on both of them. He is very careless and I was not expecting him to max out scores like he did, so, I believe that the prepping helped a lot (private school with rigorous curriculum). This year, I gave him a couple of tests to try and he got both of them right and told me that he does not need to prep for this year. So, I think that if you prep your kids well one year, they get experienced in thinking in certain ways and know how to bubble in the sheets etc that you don't have to do it later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 That sounds like typical regression to the mean for a child who is well prepared for kindergarten. Are your girls towards the older end of their class? If so then as the age difference becomes less significant (a smaller percentage of every child's age, i.e. 1 year is 20% of a kindergartener's life but only 10% of a fifth grader's life) the older kids get less of an age bump. But 25th% is getting kind of down there... is that for the state (you are in WA right?)? Since we lost our waiver there is a lot of pressure to have no child "left behind" so I could see the pressure aspect. Our school has a free test prep software login we might do. I think I'll pay them cash for it. Help your school, get paid. They should value learning but test prep isn't learning. It's training for a specific task. Not useless, certainly. Her Kids are both at the young end and I think one was a couple of months early entry. It does sound like a normal adjustment as the later starters come through although it could be a slight u derachievement too. I can't say about test prep but I think it is OK whereas I don't feel that way about prepping for an IQ test. Maybe you could buy the book and just use it as a guide for you to cover certain topics when they come up in life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Okay, I didn't remember. In that case go for prep. She will probably appreciate the coaching as a help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 That sounds like typical regression to the mean for a child who is well prepared for kindergarten. Are your girls towards the older end of their class? If so then as the age difference becomes less significant (a smaller percentage of every child's age, i.e. 1 year is 20% of a kindergartener's life but only 10% of a fifth grader's life) the older kids get less of an age bump. But 25th% is getting kind of down there... is that for the state (you are in WA right?)? Since we lost our waiver there is a lot of pressure to have no child "left behind" so I could see the pressure aspect. Our school has a free test prep software login we might do. I think I'll pay them cash for it. Help your school, get paid. They should value learning but test prep isn't learning. It's training for a specific task. Not useless, certainly. No, my youngest has not "regressed to the mean"; she still reads far above grade level, and it's natural ability/interest rather than preparation. In the other subjects, she is very quick to learn and has a great memory, but for some reason the things she knows do not exactly align with what they are testing. Or, something else is going on. Both of my kids are the youngest in their grade, but I don't think that is a factor, except as it affects the ability to sit and do something stupid, boring, and quiet for weeks. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 OK, I ordered two test practice workbooks. I'm sure my kids will be thrilled. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Perhaps your daughter whose reading scores are falling is like my son. After several years of falling reading comprehension scores, I finally told him that if he didn't get a better score, he would be practicing taking reading comprehension tests on a regular basis this year. I also made him read the test aloud to himself (he was taking it at home, so this was feasible). His score jumped 25 percentile points, after which he informed me that he hadn't been reading the passages before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Funny, my score jumped 25 percentile points when I stopped reading the passages... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I know analogies are going to be an issue for Miss A (if they test those in 3rd grade). She doesn't get the concept somehow. If I ask a certain way, she gets the right answer, but the way they ask on the test makes no sense to her. Workbooks like EPS primary analogies are good for test prep. My kids can come up with reasons why their answers are also correct but if it was a bubble test, their scores would be lower than expected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 If the reason for not performing well was that the test was less than engaging and interesting, prep at that level just will convince her that she knows it already, which leaves her easy prey for distractors. What works well for my DD when she has to take a test that's going to be easy is to have her prep on challenging material that requires really using those close reading, paying attention to details strategies. That seems to get her away from skim quickly, pick the answer that sounds good (which usually works for about 90% of standardized test questions, but not for those ones that can make the difference in getting into advanced programming or not). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daria Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 I do practice tests but only if it includes bubble sheets. I think kids need practice keeping on track with where they are at on the sheet. I have found that my kids actually learned some interesting things from the books that we hadn't covered, too. Do the 3rd grade tests your kids take use bubble sheets? As a teacher, I've proctored a few too many standardize tests, and the 3rd graders have always bubbled right under the question (e.g. there would be a question and under it 4 answers with bubbles and you picked one, so no issue of keeping track). Now they'll take the new PARCC test which is on the computer so no bubble sheets for any grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Do the 3rd grade tests your kids take use bubble sheets? As a teacher, I've proctored a few too many standardize tests, and the 3rd graders have always bubbled right under the question (e.g. there would be a question and under it 4 answers with bubbles and you picked one, so no issue of keeping track). Now they'll take the new PARCC test which is on the computer so no bubble sheets for any grade. The ITBS paper test has a separate bubble sheet in 3rd and higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 They have taken the Terra Nova historically, so I assume it will be that one again this year. I don't know how the bubbles work on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 So yesterday I had my kids start on their test prep booklets. Miss E made several mistakes that were enlightening, including getting a whole page wrong due to missing the instruction to choose the antonym vs. synonym. She also skipped one question all together and made a couple of other obvious mistakes. Yikes. No wonder. At least she is getting a chance to see what she needs to look out for on the actual test. Miss A did better than Miss E on the practice, and finished it quicker (Miss E was doing a lot of moaning and groaning). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 For a child so young, winging it would be my first line of defense. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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