Standardized test success/bust & curriculum

[warriormom]

Ok, I know that standardized testing may not be the best indicator of mastery of school subjects (or that you found the Perfect curriculum.) Some kids test well.....and some do not.

 

I just thought this would make an interesting thread.

 

Can you share dc standardized test score (or indicate if they tested well) and the curriculum that coincided with the subject? Do you think that the curriculum just helped the child to test well( without mastery or true understanding)? Any curriculum seem like a complete bust after getting dc test scores?

[FairProspects]

I credit AAS (esp. the process of dictation) for ds's sentence writing score on his most recent standardized testing. He scored more than 2 grade levels above age even though he is dyslexic and dysgraphic.

[warriormom]

I credit AAS (esp. the process of dictation) for ds's sentence writing score on his most recent standardized testing. He scored more than 2 grade levels above age even though he is dyslexic and dysgraphic.

Amazing! I am glad that you found something that works!

[Mrs Twain]

We do standardized tests every year, and my kids have tested very well. I credit this to our curriculum which I choose based on goals taken from The Core Knowledge K-8 Sequence. In addition, I add in a few supplements to help my kids cement their learning and practice the form of questions on standardized tests. I will list our basic core curriculum and supplements below if you are interested.

 

Part of the success also has to do with different choices besides curriculum. If you read quality books and attempt to speak properly to your children from the time they are babies/young, then they will likely learn proper English and hence do better on testing.

 

Core Curriculum:

Math--Horizons (including drill work and speed tests), plus Singapore's CWP

Spelling--Spelling Power

Grammar--R&S English

Writing--IEW and WWW

Reading--100 EZ Lessons before kindergarten, then have kids read aloud to me 15 minutes per day at a challenging level

Reading/Listening comprehension, Phonics--WWE, asking comprehension questions orally as we read through various books, Evan Moor's Skill Sharpeners Reading

Science--BFSU

Geography--The Complete Book of Maps and Geography grades 3-6

Civics/Government--O Say Can You See?, Why America is Free

 

Supplements for test preparation (both from The Critical Thinking Co.):

Editor in Chief

Language Smarts

[Crimson Wife]

DD tests well, but I discovered some gaps left by certain curricula.

 

Right Start Math led to very high scores in concepts and calculation but only so-so scores on estimation. If you are using RS and need to test, definitely plan on doing some additional estimation work.

 

MCT led to relatively lower scores on punctuation and capitalization. Evan-Moor's Daily Paragraph Editing remedied that weakness.

[Wheres Toto]

We just had ds take the 2nd grade CAT test, basically to satisfy our own curiosity and to placate the grandparents.

 

He would be in kindergarten in public school, we count him as 1st grade (which he could be based on birthday cut-offs) but he's doing mostly 2nd grade curriculum.

 

His grade equivalencies and what we use:

 

Reading Vocabulary - 3.4

Reading Comprehension - 4.9

 

We used OPGTR for a little while, ETC currently working in Book 4, a Scholastic ebook for Reading Comprehension that he finished and we switched to a Spectrum workbook.

 

Math Computation - 3.1

Math Concepts & Problems - 4.1

 

We've been using Math Mammoth for a while. He really loves word problems. He also does a couple math puzzle-type books from Scholastic Dollar Days ebooks.

 

Spelling - 2.8

 

We use All About Spelling. We are just finishing up Level 1.

 

Language Auding - 2.3

Language Mechanics - 1.8

Language Usage & Structure - 1.5

 

We were doing the McMillian Treasure Grammar and the Scholastic GUM programs that are available free online. We just switched to a Spectrum workbook. Most of the stuff he got wrong we hadn't really worked on at all.

[chepyl]

Last year, we did Kindergarten, but I gave my some the first grade test. He scored stanine 8 or 9 in everything but computation. That was average for a first grade student. I used what your Kindergarten needs to Know, 100 easy lessons, a sight word spelling book I grabbed at a.garage sale, a comprehensive curriculum of basic skills workbook from Sam's, and a math workbook from Walmart. I need to order my test for this year...I will know in a month how we did this year.

[tuzor]

Last year my son was in K and he scored 2nd grade level in all subjects with the exception of math. Math he scored mid 1st grade level. What I learned about the test is this. I did not do any test prep with him and he probably could have scored better but those test are so long.

 

Anyway. I did abandon our math curriculum not soley based on his scores but working through the curriculum I could tell that it did not work well building a solid foundation. The curriculum jumped around and I felt that many of the concepts they wanted a K student to focus on were nice but not neccessary for establishing a solid math foundation. So I switched curriculum.

 

My now first grade son with take his first grade exam sometime in June. I feel that the curriculum I chose moves too slow. :glare: Yeah, unfortunately there is no perfect curriculum. But if he does well on his exam we will stick with it but I work more with him in areas where I feel the curriculum is moving to slow.

 

The beauty of hs is that I can tell if my child is grasping the concepts. So I decide to move forward with the curricululm or slow down a bit. The curriculum or books provide the frame work or outline I come in and fill in the gaps. HTH.

[5knights3maidens]

We went and did the Peabody test this year. I had never heard of it and decided to try it. No writing involved. Ds age 14, 8th gr.

Reading Recogn. gr. 12.6

Reading Comprehension gr. 12.5

Total Reading gr. >12.9

Spelling gr. >12.9

 

and the dreaded math gr. 8.6 He hates math, I hate math; but we still keep moving along. :001_smile:

 

He reads a lot, watches dvd's (history/science), listens to the Latin dvd's and likes vocabulary books.

------------------------------------

Dd age 8, I tested her for 3rd grade: she is a very late July bd. ( adhd,pdd,asd)

Reading Recogn. gr. 4.4

Reading Compreh. gr. 4.7

Total Reading gr. 4.7

Spelling gr. 3.4

Math gr. 3.4

 

She only likes to read the KJV Bible; I read to her, her sister and sometimes older brother

Spelling I don't use a spelling curriculum...This score surprised me because she seems to spell very well when she writes or asked to spell out loud

Her math also surprised me, she really likes it. We will be using a lot of living math books this year and not sure what I'm going to do with spelling.

[warriormom]

:) bump

[warriormom]

:001_smile: bump

[edeemarie]

Unfortunately I think HOD science was a bust on the testing. Maybe it was because the focus is on specific science people instead of concepts. We don't have the official results yet but I know he missed at least a few. Not sure how to grade the history/ social studies part. He seemed to do well but dh is a big history buff so I think ds has picked up a lot from him. AAS was a great success and he did well in math too!

[MinivanMom]

We live in a state that requires testing, so dd8 has plenty of experience and ds6 just finished his first. They've done well, but they are both working above grade level. We have been using the Iowa.

 

Both kids have scored nearly perfect on their Reading and Language sections. I used Reading Reflex to teach both of them to read and they both read very well, but I don't use a formal reading curriculum. I just encourage my kids to read a lot and those hours of self-directed reading seem to be enough. We also don't use a grammar or spelling program. We are delaying formal grammar until 5th and we just study the words they misspell in their writing. In spite of that, they have gotten nearly perfect scores in Language and Spelling. They read enough that they recognize errors when they see them, which is what the IOWA asks you to do in those sections. The one section that has thrown them is Word Analysis, where you move sounds/letters around to form new words. They still have scored above average in it, so no big deal.

 

In math, both kids have scored very well, but not perfect. We use Singapore Math and that has done a good job of preparing them for math computation and word problems. My kids' weak areas have been in estimation and algebraic concepts (neither of which are covered by Singapore in the younger grades). I've begun working on estimation with them, but I'm strongly opposed to teaching pre-algebra skills to my kids while they're still mastering the basics of computation. I won't teach to the test, so I'm fine with not quite perfect scores on those types of problems.

 

My kids have scored well, though not perfect, in Social Studies and Science. I find 70% of the problems to be basic cultural knowledge that any American middle-class child would know and the other 30% to be completely random. Would your child recognize the Eiffel Tower? If you showed them silhouette-style pictures of three random birds, would they know which one is flightless? I don't know if there is more actual knowledge tested at higher levels, but at the younger levels they really seem to be tests of whether or not you have middle-class cultural knowledge. I don't know how you would even begin to prep for it. We continue to study history and science in-depth using living books, but I don't think there is much connection between what we are doing and the Social Studies/Science testing we have done so far.

[skueppers]

My daughter did well on standardized testing. She is in first grade, and took the ITBS level 7.

 

Her weakest area was "Language," where she scored in the 91st percentile. She got one question wrong in each of "Capitalization in Context," "Punctuation in Context," and "Usage and Expression." She got all of the "Spelling in Context" questions right. I am not terribly concerned that she wasn't entirely confident about where a comma needed to be placed or what needed to be capitalized, particularly since she also reads and writes German, where the rules for both are different.

 

In the LA area, we've been using Evan-Moor's "Daily Six-Trait Writing" for second grade this year, and I feel that's been a good balance for her between writing concepts and other language arts topics. I feel no need to place a huge amount of emphasis on this stuff at her age. She's also done some copywork and dictation, often based on things I noticed in her writing. For example, we recently did a couple of weeks of copywork and dictation highlighting the distinction between their, they're, and there.

 

In math, she got an overall score in the 98th percentile. Her weakest area was "math concepts"; as far as I can tell, this was mainly due to not being able to estimate weights and measurements. She did very well on all the math computation sections, and I credit our use of Math Mammoth this year for that. She's the kind of kid who wants to do every problem, even if she finds it boring, so she got a lot of computational practice.

 

She scored in the 96th percentile in reading; she's currently on the last 20 pages or so of the final Harry Potter book, so I have no concerns about her reading. We are not using any type of reading curriculum.

 

She scored in the 99th percentile on Social Studies, Science, and Sources of Information, which I attribute to the wide range of activities we engage in as a family, rather than to any specific curriculum.

[Carrie12345]

My older dd was required to test last year, 3rd grade.

 

Math computation - 76th percentile, grade equiv. 4.5

Math concepts - 93rd percentile, grade equiv. 6.8

We used Calvert Math. She has issues with using scratch paper. :tongue_smilie:

 

Spelling - 59th percentile, grade equiv. 4.1

We tried Sequential Spelling and Spectrum Spelling and hated both. We've switched to AAS, and she's improved a lot.

 

Language mechanics - 42nd percentile, grade equiv. 3.4

Language expression - 96th percentile, grade equiv. 11.5

I found this group the most interesting. We had used WWE and FLL.

 

Vocab and comprehension - 88th/70th, 6.1/4.8

We didn't use any specific voc/lit curricula there, other than WWE, FLL, and SOTW (plus lots of reading.)

 

Science - 99th percentile, grade equiv. 10.8

No actual curriculum

 

Social Studies - 93rd percentile, grade equiv. 8.3

No "social studies" curriculum

[workingmom]

I find it ironic that those of you who have no specific curriculum (mostly for science or social studies) the kids score great :)!!

 

We do SAT and ds scores high on math and reading but its hit or miss on social studies/science although he does fine its not nearly as well as math/language. I think it depends if you've covered the whole sequence for History in order to get all the social studies questions. As for science I've been trying to check of the core knowledge skills but that also then becomes if they happened to run across it that particular year.

 

I'd love to hear of any suggestions for a review for the test (at least for science/social studies) anyone has found helpful.

[daybreaking]

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Edited April 21, 2012 by daybreaking

[Carrie12345]

I find it ironic that those of you who have no specific curriculum (mostly for science or social studies) the kids score great :)!!

 

We do SAT and ds scores high on math and reading but its hit or miss on social studies/science although he does fine its not nearly as well as math/language. I think it depends if you've covered the whole sequence for History in order to get all the social studies questions. As for science I've been trying to check of the core knowledge skills but that also then becomes if they happened to run across it that particular year.

 

I'd love to hear of any suggestions for a review for the test (at least for science/social studies) anyone has found helpful.

 

We used the CAT. Honestly, I felt the science and ss portions were more a matter of critical thinking and reading comprehension than any specific science or ss information. Before seeing it, I though for sure they'd "flunk", lol. I can't speak for other tests.

[MinivanMom]

We used the CAT. Honestly, I felt the science and ss portions were more a matter of critical thinking and reading comprehension than any specific science or ss information. Before seeing it, I though for sure they'd "flunk", lol. I can't speak for other tests.

 

:iagree:

 

Except we have been using the IOWA. I thought science and social studies were a combination of critical thinking and what I would consider middle-class cultural knowledge. We study both science and history in a systematic, in-depth manner, but I really don't think anything we've learned was helpful for the tests.

[PRTGSw2K]

DD tests well, but I discovered some gaps left by certain curricula.

 

Right Start Math led to very high scores in concepts and calculation but only so-so scores on estimation. If you are using RS and need to test, definitely plan on doing some additional estimation work.

 

What did you use to fix this?

[Mrs Twain]

I'd love to hear of any suggestions for a review for the test (at least for science/social studies) anyone has found helpful.

 

To prepare for the test, you could read through the What Your _-Grader Needs to Know (Hirsch) books, at least for the sections about which you are concerned (history, geography, science, grammar, etc.). Many libraries have this series.

 

For something more thorough, before the test you could read through The Core Knowledge K-8 Sequence (also by Hirsch) for the grade of your student(s) to see if you have any gaps. You can download it free here. This is what I do about two months before the end of the school year. I check to see which areas we have covered well and highlight areas that we need to cover or review before the end of the year to make sure we haven't missed anything important in our curriculum.

 

As for the language/grammar types of questions, I found Editor in Chief workbooks (The Critical Thinking Co.) to be very helpful.

 

As for listening/reading comprehension, WWE is a very useful resource. You could also use any of a number of workbooks. I use Evan Moor's Skill Sharpeners Reading.

 

As for math (if you curriculum does not include them) make sure you are doing some type of drill for basic arithmetic (flash cards, speed tests, etc.).

 

As for the civics portion of the test, I like O Say Can You See? (Keenan). I also talk about local and national political/current events with my kids to help educate them regarding citizenship. For example, at tax time we teach them something about taxes, why we pay them, and what the government does with the money. Or if an interesting case comes up in the Supreme Court, we discuss it with the kids regarding why someone would file such a lawsuit. This helps learn about our three branches of government, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights among other things.

[masaki]

Ds consistently does well each year. Last year, 5th grade, he scored in the advanced range in math, science, and english. We used Excellence in English and WS 4 for language arts. For math, we used SM 6A, EPGY math, and Saxon 7/6(although not concurrently). For science, ES Logic-stage Bio, some fun classes, and he also spent 2-3 months covering the 5th grade science standards wtm-style. He wrote a summary, outline, or facts list for each topic. Jumping around from life, to earth, to physical science to follow the standards felt kind of weird though. It was the first time I'd ever deliberately followed the standards. Prior to 5th, and then again this year, we just incorporated test-prep materials a week or two before the tests. The next time I'll bother with the standards is in 8th grade when testing will include history.