Interpreting Test Results (Stanford 10 Prim 2/A)

[LarlaB]

If your DD8 was 93% percentile overall, grade equivalency of 6.4 (she just finished 2nd grade), reading on a 8th grade level...what would that mean to you & what would you do?

 

She attended a somewhat rigorous private school this past year, and this is our first achievement test. Until now, I've simply had my own observations of her capabilities.

 

I know this is somewhat uncouth....people don't talk numbers etc in the g/t circles, but this is our first testing situation and I'm not sure how to interpret it so please forgive my bluntness.

 

Thanks!

[EKS]

I would say that she is doing well and has probably mastered 2nd grade material (assuming that she took the 2nd grade test). Grade equivalent scores tell you more about what average X graders know than about what your child knows.

 

Reading level is best determined by observation of what the child reads for pleasure and what she can read when stretched. Just based on my own son's numbers, when his GE score was at the 8th grade level for reading, his true reading level was somewhere around the 5th or 6th grade level. What I mean by true reading level is the level at which he read very well--fluently, comfortably, not stretched.

[LarlaB]

Thank you. She is reading for pleasure on 5/6 level, has always worked 1-2 grade levels ahead (when homeschooling) in all subjects, and her teacher & I agreed that she could have skipped 2nd grade. There is no doubt that she is an accelerated learner & creatively gifted.

 

Yet, tests scores are simply one dimension of a child's learning & capability. We are pursuing evaluation & assessment later this summer and that will likely give us a broader scope

 

Anyone else?

[EKS]

Thank you. She is reading for pleasure on 5/6 level, has always worked 1-2 grade levels ahead (when homeschooling) in all subjects, and her teacher & I agreed that she could have skipped 2nd grade. There is no doubt that she is an accelerated learner & creatively gifted.

 

 

It's very hard to come to any solid conclusions based on test scores from an on-level administration. Whenever my kids get above the 90th percentile down the line, the next year I bump them up a grade level. It's much easier to see the strengths and weaknesses when the percentiles range from the 60s to the 90s (or whatever) than if they're all in the 90s (or all 99s).

 

So, in my previous post, my point was not that I didn't think your daughter was accelerated/gifted, but that an on-level test can only tell you so much--in this case, that she has likely mastered 2nd grade material. Your own day to day observations, particularly if you were homeschooling her, are worth far more than scores from a single test administration.

 

You will likely get much more information from the assessment this summer.