Standardized Test?

[lwilliams1922]

I am just starting to home school for the first time. My dd is 12 and in the 7th grade.

I wanted to do a standardized test to get a base line then measure our progress. The state also requires one every other year.

I talked to a home school mom in the area who suggested the CAT test. I just received the results back. She scored 98% / 12 grade+ or better in all areas but Math. She’s always been 1-2 years BELOW in math but that is one of the reasons we are home schooling now.

What other tests are avail that might give me a better picture of where she is and yearly progress?

Should I try retesting with grade 8 or 9 for the CAT?

She doesn’t seem to mind taking the test (except the math part)

I just learned that younger kids can take the SAT. Should I have her take this next year? I think she would like the verbal portion but the math may traumatize her??

I'm in the northern part of the state/rural. How do you find people that give the Woodcock Johnson?

any suggestions on other tests?

thanks

Lara

in NY

[RoughCollie]

Three of my kids took the Terra Nova test when they went to parochial school this year. Two of my kids (including the one who was homeschooled by himself in September) took the CAT 5 and some other standardized test at the PS this spring.

 

It is so odd. Three of them tested in the superior range in math, even though we never made it past Singapore 4B and only finished half of Saxon 7/6 by the time DD started 7th grade and the DS were in 8th.

 

I was really sweating bullets over how behind we were in math and over how lousy of a homeschooler those test scores would prove I am.

 

Even the DS who didn't score well in math had a score in the average range, and his problems are due to a learning disorder, not due to me being a louse.

 

Those math scores surprised me so much, but they held true for 2 major standardized tests which were timed and were not given by me. Weird, isn't it?

[lwilliams1922]

What other tests are avail that might give me a better picture of where she is and yearly progress?

 

 

I know many people don't like to tests but I'd feel a lot better knowing I'm on the right track.

 

dd has always seemed to test well on standardized test. She just couldn't seem to stay organized enough for the formal school setting.

She once got an award for 'student with the most missing assignments that were in the bottom of her locker of backpack (most of them completed just lost before they got turned in).

 

 

looking back its sad that all these years she scored in the 95 percentile or better but her organizational skills, or lack of, kept her grades around a C.

 

I have a few years to work on that but in the mean time I really want to turn the focus back on learning instead of damaging her self esteem.