Most Helpful Test for Determining Grade Levels in Subjects?

[Job384]

Trying to figure this out on my own is costing a huge amount of time and money (and clutter with all the unused resources.) My child is six. What might be a helpful test for determing where he is in each subject?

[Dmmetler]

The DORA and ADAM (about $15 each through HSBC) are pretty good for reading and math, and, really, in elementary school everything else follows those.

[Dmmetler]

The DORA and ADAM (about $15 each through HSBC) are pretty good for reading and math, and, really, in elementary school everything else follows those.

[Job384]

Thank you. I had no idea that such inexpensive tests were available. That's great.

[boscopup]

If you're trying to place him into particular curricula, I'd use the placement test of that curricula, if they have one. For example, in math, grade 4 Singapore, Saxon, Teaching Textbooks, and Math Mammoth are all quite different. Testing into grade 4 of one could put you in grade 6 of another!

 

I'll also say that age 6 was the hardest age for placement of my oldest. His input/output gap was huge then, and he wasn't mature enough for some levels in certain subjects, yet the lower levels were too easy. It's gotten better the last couple years. YMMV, of course!

[EKS]

I agree with boscopup that using placement tests is the best way to go when possible. Unlike more general achievement tests, placement tests are designed to test the specific knowledge and skills required for the particular curriculum.

 

The most valuable information I got though went beyond simple placement testing. When my son was 5yo, he was quite advanced but not uniformly so. I had him take the placement test for K12 Language Arts and it placed him into their 2nd grade course. We used that course for 6 or so months and by the end of that time I had a solid feel for where he was in reading, spelling, grammar, and writing. The next year I was able to match each LA subject much more closely to his level.

[Job384]

Finished the ADAM. Eye-opening! No wonder I'm having trouble finding a good fit.

 

What do you do if the strands (numbers and operations, measurement, data analysis, geometry, and algebra) come out at wildly different grade levels?

 

I know MM is available to buy topically. What else is? It looks to me like if I take a couple days to explain measurement and do a short unit on geometry spanning a few grade levels, it will be easier to make a good placement. Anyone have recommendations?

 

Thank you for suggesting this test. So helpful!

 

ETA: To be more specific, this explains why every time we start a program based on publisher placement tests, most of the work ends up being trivially easy and the rest seems completely over my student's head with almost nothing in the sweet spot of appropriate challenge.

[2smartones]

The first time we used it (it was called DOMA back then, but it's the same test), we had the same problem - the scores in math were all over the place! We used mastery-based curriculum and supplements (Miquon & IXL.com) to catch up the oddball spots that were lacking, and we used drill-n-kill online games to work on getting the facts faster. After that, the test results were much more accurate the following year. We also noticed that there were things on the checklist that he KNEW, but that weren't tested, because the test assumed if you didn't already know X, you couldn't have known Y or Z, either. ... the test was mistaken! ;) I caught on the 3rd time through the test, and I answered a couple of them for him to make sure the test would continue past that point. LOL

[Job384]

"We also noticed that there were things on the checklist that he KNEW, but that weren't tested, because the test assumed if you didn't already know X, you couldn't have known Y or Z, either. ... the test was mistaken!"

 

Ha ha! Yes, I noticed the same thing.

[Dmmetler]

The DOMA was very, very helpful to me in deciding to accelerate DD in math when she was demanding it. Not so much from the report, but because I was able to watch her problem solving strategies with problems of types she hadn't done before (for example, she really hadn't done much geometry at that point, but was able to do quite well on that section) and realize that she had skills I didn't know she had. I hadn't gotten that from previous testing, because, for the most part, either it wasn't giving her material that I didn't know was already in her wheelhouse, or I wasn't in the room to see her do it, or both.

 

Be aware that for my DD, at least, anything involving measurement online isn't always accurate. A lot of times the scale is off, and I've discovered that she's actually quite good at estimating that the little picture on screen is 5 cm-but if the ruler isn't to scale, and she's supposed to measure it to be 10, she often ends up getting the answer wrong because the "correct" answer LOOKS wrong to her brain. It can also be hard for little hands to manipulate the digital measurement tools. So for that section, I'd suggest rechecking with actual, physical tools in the real-world.

 

For filling in gaps, I used Mathletics, which lets you assign tasks, as well as giving facts practice. It was actually the facts practice, and the fact that DD was motivated by the online, live head-to-head competition with other kids to do it, that had led me to pay the subscription fee. If you have such resources already, see what you can do before buying something new!

 

 

The DORA is similar, except that it goes through reading skills, and, in general, the "If you don't know X, you don't know Y" is logical. I will say that the reading comprehension is less reading comprehension and more recall skills, because you can't flip back to the passage after reading the questions, so take that section with a grain of salt.

[Job384]

That's good to know about the measurement because it explains the results I found puzzling. The scores were all topped out there except length, which was much lower.

 

And yes, very interesting to find out that there are skills I wasn't aware of. This student knows all about percents? How? We've never talked about percents. Maybe we have, and I've forgotten.

 

I think the main thing we need to go over in geometry is how problems are phrased and what they mean. I think he was confused by the idea of faces in three dimensional shapes and didn't understand what was being asked. Actually I wish he could do just that section again because after the faces questions, he wasn't tested, so I'm still not quite sure what he knows there and what he doesn't.

 

This was also good because I was able to see why his enrichment tutor started him in algebra. (I stopped it and asked them to do something else because my son hated the homework. I want to keep things fun at this age, and I'd rather he went into an algebra course with more emotional maturity and interest in attacking hard problems.)

 

I can't believe this test was only $15. Definitely a best purchase of the year.

[Black-eyed Suzan]

The DORA is similar, except that it goes through reading skills, and, in general, the "If you don't know X, you don't know Y" is logical. I will say that the reading comprehension is less reading comprehension and more recall skills, because you can't flip back to the passage after reading the questions, so take that section with a grain of salt.

 

 

I agree. When my son took the test, he could only read one of the passages - he got tired and refused to read the next one. I told him to skip directly to the questions, which he got all correct, and then only missed a couple on the next passage that he didn't read, either. It was general knowledge for him, and not a true representation of his reading skills at the time.

[Coco_Clark]

Your six year old sounds like my five year old. He tested all over the place. K level on one thing and second grade in another. I suppose that is what I get for doing play based preschool years. :p.

 

I'm catching him up over the summer on the things we accidentally "skipped" and starting him with a mastery focused (vs spiral) curricula in the Fall, so we can zoom ahead a bit if we need to.

[ElizabethB]

The ADAM test has a free feature that links each subject area to Khan Academy.

 

http://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/support_read/adam_k-7_alignment_to_khan_academy/

 

I thought...brilliant, I can take a few days off and have my daughter watch a few movies in the few portions that she scored lower than the others. Nope...she hates them, she likes me and likes the way I teach. So, I quickly looked through the movies and taught her the missing info. I am efficient, though, she learned 60 minutes worth of Khan movies in 5 minutes!

 

It would have been much easier if she would have liked the movies, though. But, I had her make lunch for herself and her brother for me so it's all good.

[brendag]

Ok, now I think I know what I need to do with my kids. This thread has been especially timely!

[JumpyTheFrog]

Here's a link to the ADAM math test through the HSBC. I had trouble finding it at first because it's listed under "Let's Go Learn."

 

I had Tigger take the test today. It was very helpful. It showed me a few areas that he is "behind" in, meaning less ahead than others. For example, he didn't know how to read a thermometer; he needs work in converting between units in distance, capacity, and weight; and he needs more work in geometry.

 

I did find that occasionally ADAM didn't test him in things he knows because he didn't know something they consider a prerequisite skill that really isn't. We haven't covered converting fractions to percents yet, so it assumed he didn't know how to add or subtract fractions. It is possible to do all sorts of math with fractions without knowing anything about percents, so it lowered the score he got.

 

Overall, it was $15 well spent. It showed me that Tigger was even more ahead than I thought. I think it's time for me to dump Singapore Math, because it is going too slowly and has too much review for Tigger. I am considering going with the topical books in Math Mammoth instead.

[jenn-]

Does anyone know if you have to be part of a Co-Op to get the discounted version from HSBC?

[JumpyTheFrog]

You just sign up for a free account and you can start ordering through them. You don't need to be part of a local homeschooling co-op.