Trilliums Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 DS took ITBS last fall. This was his first standardized test. He said he ran out of time for each section and did not answer all the questions. We just received his test scores and he scored 99th percentile for all but 2 sections. I am wondering how he could have scored in the 99th percentile if he ran out of time. I do not think the test was meant to be a test most kids do not finish (my other son did complete all of the test questions). I am also wondering if they covered several sections in one timed unit. Then did he just score worse on the sections he happened to be doing when he ran out of time? For example, in math maybe he did all of section 1 and section2, but time ran out during section 3 and hence he scored lower. This doesn't actually make sense unless they randomize the sections since he actually scored lowest in section 2. Also, he scored 13th (grade) plus for all sections, even the ones with lower percentiles scores. Is the test really set up so that kids who run out of time can achieve 13th plus? That does not seem right. OK, now I think I need to find a copy of a test to see how it is ordered and quiz DS on how many questions he didn't answer. The teacher knew he had run out of time, but she did not know how that would affect his score. Any thoughts on how the ITBS scoring works appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 This page from the Hoagie's Gifted website on what tests tell us might help http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/tests_tell_us.htm The ITBS is a criterion-referenced grade level achievement test, so you will want to read that section, though the rest gives you a good bit of background on testing terminology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Thank you for the link. When I was trying a good word search that article come up also. I think I understand the basics behind the percentile scores. I still find it hard to believe that a student not finishing the test can attain that ranking. On the other hand, I feel more hopeful about SAT testing, an area I have fretted over many times. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 The ITBS is a criterion-referenced grade level achievement test, so you will want to read that section, though the rest gives you a good bit of background on testing terminology. This is incorrect. It is a norm-referenced achievement test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Are you sure that the grade levels were indicated correctly? Does your score sheet say how many items were attempted? There are different versions of the score sheet and not all of them give this information. If he took the test on level (meaning that it was the level that corresponded to his grade), then it is odd that he scored at the 99th percentile with unanswered questions in every section. However, if he took a test that was intended for older students and was compared to students his own age/grade then it *is* possible to have 99th percentiles across the board and still get quite a few wrong. As for the grade equivalent of 13+, all it means is that your son did better than a student in the 50th percentile in the spring of 12th grade did. It says way more about average high school students than it does about anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Depends how close he came to finishing. If he didn't finish the last 2 questions per section, but got all the other ones right, that makes sense to me that he scored so well. If he didn't finish a big chunk no, that seems odd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 This is incorrect. It is a norm-referenced achievement test. Not according to the Hoagie's article--it can be scored as both: Achievement tests are either Criterion-Referenced (CRT) or Norm-Referenced (NRT). Criterion-referenced tests measure how well the child has mastered the expected content, generally including all the expected content at a single level. Criterion-referenced tests cannot measure how well a child has done on any level except the level it is written to measure, usually a single grade level, or even a half of a grade level. Particularly at younger grades, tests may be normed for "spring" or "fall" administration. State grade-level achievement tests are nearly always criterion-referenced tests. Alternatively, norm-referenced tests compare the child to other children who took the same test in the normalization process. Content on norm-referenced tests does not generally include all the expected knowledge at any level, instead including only those questions that are good at differentiating between various student levels of knowledge. Individual achievement tests are always norm-referenced... Grade-level or group achievement tests are criterion-referenced, so they contain questions covering just about every aspect of the curriculum at that grade level. Grade-level achievement tests are normed for no more than a single grade level, and at the youngest grades, only 1/2 a grade level (spring or fall). These tests have little or no content to determine just how far above or below grade level a student might be. Grade-level achievement tests that report grade-equivalent scores outside of the grade level being tested, really don't provide that kind of information. They can only determine if the child is at, below, or above grade level. For example, a 3rd grader gets a grade-equivalent score of grade 5.8 on a group achievement test. This does not tell us anything about how the 3rd grader might score on a 5th grade test; instead it means that, had a late 5th grader taken the same 3rd grade test, he would have scored similarly to this student. Common grade-level achievement tests include the Terra Nova/CTBS, Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), California Achievement (CAT), Stanford Achievement (SAT), and all state mandated grade level achievement tests such as PSSA in Pennsylvania, NJASK, GEPA, and HSPA in New Jersey, TAAS and TAKS in Texas, and others. Of these, the ITBS can be scored both as criterion-referenced and norm-referenced. The ITBS, too, gives us a clue in its name: the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Grade-level achievement tests are only a measure of basic skills. So, from that, I take it that the ITBS is criterion-referenced and the WJ-III is norm-referenced, though both use national norms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 The ITBS is definitely a norm-referenced test. A criterion referenced test is a test like a high school graduation test or a drivers license exam or the National Latin Exam or a final exam that your professor gave you in college or a professional standardized test (like the medical boards)... A criterion referenced test tests for mastery of a topic. How others perform on the test won't change the score of how a single student performs... that student is not being compared with other students, but against mastery of the material itself. A norm referenced test is like the ITBS... the student is being compared to a norming group. The percentile and stanine ranks are a reflection of the "representative sample"... like percentile ranks on a growth chart. It can be confusing though, because I think there's the issue of scoring being norm- or criterion- referenced, but also the interpretation of criterion-referenced scores which can be converted to percentile rankings. Anyway, you can find lots of info online about norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced tests... http://www.fairtest.org/facts/nratests.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) Not according to the Hoagie's article--it can be scored as both: The following from the publisher of the ITBS indicates that the ITBS is designed as a norm-referenced test, but that the end user can decide to examine the test to determine a passing score using percent correct, making it criterion referenced (using the end user's criterion). Standardized achievement batteries like the ITBS and ITED are designed mainly to provide for norm-referenced interpretations of the scores obtained from them. For this reason they are commonly called norm-referenced tests. However, the scores also permit criterion-referenced interpretations, as do the scores from most other tests. Thus, norm-referenced tests are devised to enhance norm-referenced interpretations, but they also permit criterion-referenced interpretation. A criterion-referenced interpretation involves comparing a student's score with a subjective standard of performance rather than with the performance of a norm group. Deciding whether a student has mastered a skill or demonstrated minimum acceptable performance involves a criterion-referenced interpretation. Usually percent-correct scores are used and the teacher determines the score needed for mastery or for passing. The user must establish some performance standards (criterion levels) against which comparisons can be made. For example, how many math estimation questions does a student need to answer correctly before we regard his/her performance as acceptable or "proficient?" This can be decided by examining the test questions on estimation and making a judgment about how many the minimally prepared student should be able to get right. The percent of estimation questions identified in this way becomes the criterion score to which each student's percent-correct score should be compared. When making a criterion-referenced interpretation, it is critical that the content area covered by the test – the domain – be described in detail. It is also important that the test questions for that domain cover the important areas of the domain. In addition, there should be enough questions on the topic to provide the students ample opportunity to show what they know and to minimize the influence of errors in their scores. The percent-correct score is the type used most widely for making criterion-referenced interpretations. Criterion scores that define various levels of performance on the tests are generally percent-correct scores arrived at through teacher analysis and judgment. Several score reports available thru the Riverside Scoring Service include percent-correct skill scores that can be used to make criterion-referenced interpretations: Group Skills Analysis, Group Item Analysis, Individual Performance Profile, and Group Performance Profile. Edited March 22, 2012 by EKS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Hm, interesting points to consider. He was taking a test for his grade level and his current grade was correctly entered. I suspect that for some (perhaps even many) of the sections he left only one or two questions unfinished. He is a pretty concrete thinker and to him "not finishing the test" does not come with any expounding on whether he had almost finished or not. Since he took the test over 5 months ago, probing him on these details hasn't revealed much, except that he thought he finished about half of the math computation area (computation speed is a problem for him, although accuracy is not--he was dxd dyslexic in 2nd grade). He did score much lower in that area, but still in a higher grade level than his current grade. Thank you for the input. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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