butterflymommy Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Is this considered an accurate measure of aptitude/ performance? DD 13/ 8th grade just came home with excellent ITBS scores, 90%tile for math and 99%tile for ELA. But, she is borderline failing math and recently failed two class tests with scores I'm too embarrassed to share. So why would she score so high on the math section of ITBS? Is it an "easy" test? Otherwise I have to assume she's not living up to her potential. Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm so confused. I've always noticed a trend with her where she seems to do better on standardized tests than class grades, but I chalked it up to homeschooling (since she was taking the tests in a "relaxed" home environment and/ or was untimed, for the PASS test) but this ITBS was taken at school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I've used it for dd when we homeschooled, and ds used to take it in elementary school. IDK about the difficulty of the test. Perhaps it tests a different part of math than she is currently taking in school? Perhaps part of it is also that they give you the answers...it's multiple choice. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Are the class tests in the same format as the ITBS? Have you seen the class tests? :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 8th grade. Is she taking algebra? pre-alg? basic 8th grade math? The test is going to cover all, but will be focused more on 8th grade skills. There won't be a whole lot of algebra on it. If she is getting the basic math correct, she can be scoring extremely well on the test. It may be that she isn't ready for algebra or pre-algebra thinking but is taking it in school. It could also be that she is good at guessing. When taking a multiple choice test, it is sometimes really easy to rule out all but a couple of answers. It could be that she isn't applying herself in her class. It could be that she has a cr@ppy teacher. It could be that her teacher makes lousy tests. If she is in basic math, it means she will probably be fine moving forward in math next year anyway. She might be bored in class. If she isn't doing well in algebra this year, she should probably repeat it next year. Editing to add: do you know if they were allowed to use calculators on the achievement test? I believe they are allowed on all but a small portion of the math test now. Been a while since I gave it! I never allowed my kids to use them while testing. If they used a calculator, she may need to brush up on her basic math skills, but know how to apply them to problem solving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterflymommy Posted December 19, 2012 Author Share Posted December 19, 2012 No calculators are allowed on the test but the teacher requires them in class! He is a nice guy but has a very thick accent & is difficult even for me to understand. I've wondered too if she isn't just good at guessing! If you can narrow it down to two answers it's 50/50. She is doing pre-algebra and most of her class is failing... I know this b/c the teacher reads the passing scores out loud and it's always less than 1/3 of the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claire up north Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I would talk to the teacher and see what he thinks. It is possible she got "help" in the form of explaining questions to her or "getting her started." With today's hyper emphasis on test scores, this is not outside of the realm of possibility. It is also possible that she knows quite a bit of math, but is failing her class for other reasons. It is not a good sign that "most of her class" is failing. This sometimes indicates a lousy teacher or unrealistic expectations. I think a conference with the teacher is definitely in order. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 No calculators are allowed on the test but the teacher requires them in class! He is a nice guy but has a very thick accent & is difficult even for me to understand. I've wondered too if she isn't just good at guessing! If you can narrow it down to two answers it's 50/50. She is doing pre-algebra and most of her class is failing... I know this b/c the teacher reads the passing scores out loud and it's always less than 1/3 of the class. Sounds like it is probably that she has good math skills and did well on the achievement test. There aren't a ton of algebra type problems on it. My guess would be that she has a poor teacher this year. With a good math base, she should be able to handle algebra next year anyway (with a decent teacher!). Pre-algebra really is not required for algebra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renmew Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 The percentile grade compares your dd with all the other students who have taken this test. So, it doesn't mean she got 99% on the test, just that she did better than 99% of the other students taking the test. That is an extremely great score, but it doesn't necessarily mean she is understanding everything in math as well as she should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 It means she knows the stuff that's tested on the ITBS. It's not exactly advanced math. That much of her class shouldn't be failing. Either those kids aren't ready for algebra and someone is pushing them ahead of where they should be, or the teacher has no idea how to teach the material. Or that he has no idea how to test the material. Back when I was in school, there were a few math teachers who seemed to think we needed to know how to spit back things like the derivation of the quadratic formula. It's not like he had ever taught us what we would need to know to derive it on our own, but he for some reason expected us to blindly memorize all the steps and regurgitate. Our entire grade was based on this one question. I'm just telling that story to point out that there are some real idiots out there teaching. That might not be the case here, but it's worth considering. On the other hand, I've seen teachers who were perfectly capable of teaching the material, but the students took over the class and whined about how they were failing because of the teacher -- when they never let the teacher say anything. And then the parents stepped in to whine about how the teacher couldn't possibly know algebra because he was certified to teach social studies. Um, algebra isn't really all that hard. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that a history major somewhere would know how to do it. (Although there are math majors who can't teach the material to save their lives...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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