What's on the CAT?

[CatholicMom]

I'm looking for a grade by grade chart or something that will tell me which skills are covered for each grade. Is there such a thing??

 

Google is failing me!

[dbmamaz]

well, there is this: http://www.setontest...f/CAT-Table.pdf

 

and http://www.cde.ca.go...sr/css05rtq.asp (CAT is california achievement test and i think its been replaced by CST so its similar . . )

[CatholicMom]

well, there is this: http://www.setontest...f/CAT-Table.pdf and http://www.cde.ca.go...sr/css05rtq.asp (CAT is california achievement test and i think its been replaced by CST so its similar . . )

 

Thanks. I saw the Seton chart but it doesn't go into any detail.

 

Hmm I wonder about the CST. I'm just afraid to bother teaching to the test based on this list and then find out what the CAT covers is actually different... I know I was surprised last year that long division was covered on the 3rd grade CAT and it wasn't even covered in our curriculum yet (I didn't learn it until 4th grade in ps either). But this sort of thing drags their scores down artificially, so I just wanted to hit the skills I know will be on there.

 

I thought sure this info would be online somewhere. :glare:

[dbmamaz]

i dont know where you are, but I try to remember that, in my state, they only need to have a composite score in the . . . idk, 4th stanine? 3rd? its pretty low. My younger sometimes is too low in one LA subtest and my older is sometimes too low in one math subtest, but overall, they pass. and it doesnt count as a grade - its just a hoop to jump through so we can keep homeschooling.

 

I was surprised on the punctuation and capitalization in 2nd grade - our curriculum didnt cover it until 3rd. so i did a little and it turned out all the questions were about how to capitalize a book title. Uh, why would a big portion of the LA test be on how to capitalize a book title? silliness.

 

i know Seton sells test prep booklets, too, but it turns out they arent specifically for the CAt either. i just try not to care too much . . .

[CatholicMom]

I'm in NY. Yeah I am torn. I don't care in the sense that I know I'm just playing the test game, but I do in the sense that I can't bear to see my kids get a low score even if I *know* it's because we just haven't covered some things yet. But last year they were in the 60-something percentile (50 being average, of course), so that's fine. But dh wasn't impressed. :glare: I think they only have to score in the 33rd percentile or above (if I remember right) so, yeah, it's not like they are playing hardball, which is good. But I just would like them to do well, and dh says that anything we turn into the district, he wants to look good.

It's dumb, but yet I feel like it reflects on me... basically because some people *think* it does. sigh. But I do want to cover my butt and make sure they have no reason to nit-pick us because our kids do reasonably well on tests.

[dbmamaz]

oh, i hear ny is rough. and it would be a lot harder if dh cared about it. like i said, my boys each have strengths and weaknesses and it shows in the testing. so he's fine with our results.

[hsmom10]

This is interesting to read. My dds will be doing the CAT this year, they are 3rd and 5th. My 3rd grader is doing Saxon Intermediate, and they have not done long division at all yet, nor any division at all. We switched to Saxon from Horizons this year and I know Horizons covered long division in 3rd grade. I guess this might be something I need to teach her before taking the test? I hadn't even thought about test prepping them, but now I am wondering if it would be beneficial. I agree with you that it isn't about the score for the test, but that the test score can reflect on you. I think for our state we only have to be in the 13th percentile or higher, but it would feel pretty awful to score low.

[nukeswife]

Just because it's on the test doesn't mean it was something they expected them to have encountered. They purposely put questions on those tests that are above and below typical grade level for that test. At least I remember reading that somewhere.

 

I refuse to "teach to the test" That's one of the reasons I pulled my oldest out of PS.

[Tidbits of Learning]

When we were doing the CAT for reporting purposes, I didn't teach to it. I did have olders that had taken it before so I knew most of what was covered. We just always bought the spectrum test prep for their grade and added it in to the day about 2-3 months before testing. We would just have like 30 min. of test prep a day. And if we missed a day of test prep, I did not stress it. It did help them with actual test taking skills like filling in the circle and being aware of time. My kids generally test well but like the pp above each year there is something that has a low score but the overall score is pretty good.