Anyone Familiar with Testing Products?

[geniusmom]

Hi,

 

I am new to the board.  I have home schooled off and on, this is an "on" year, after a year in public school (her choice) by my rising "4th Grader."  She was an early entry kindergartener, started at 4, and I am trying to track her progress.  I used to give her the Stanford Achievement Test, but have switched to ITBS because Stanford folks keep going back and forth about rules of home school testing.

 

So, after a year of regular school and before instruction this year, I administered the end of year 4th grade ITBS, to get a sense of her gaps, with the plan to re-administer in April.  However she got 99% in everything, so, I am seeing that my plan will not work.  Oh, the only area she did not get 99% in was capitalization, which I blame on text chatting with cousins while doing minecraft.  : )

 

I am going to have her now take the ACT-Plan through Duke talent search (like her brother did), but I am wondering:

 

1) Should I just administer end of year 5th grade ITBS in April to see progress?  (leaning towards this)

2) Does anyone know a good adaptive measure that is not grade based but knowledge based?

 

She had the Woodcock Johnson last Spring and I did not find it very helpful in terms of giving an idea of growth or areas to work on.  She is currently doing her math through EPGY & Johns Hopkins, Language Arts through Hopkins, Science (her passion) through Northwestern University.  All online.  Social science, arts, and PE, I take care of.  I think I have her placed well in her classes, but I really like a tangible rubric to include in her portfolio and for planning.  BTW, FYI, I have a Master's in Education with certification as a Generalist EC-6, and Gifted & Talented.

 

TIA!!!!

 

Noel

[wapiti]

I don't think the ITBS is particularly useful for that purpose unless you test using a higher grade level test.

 

I happen to like the NWEA MAP test that my kids take at school.  It will show the progress forward regardless of the grade-level percentile.  Even then, it's not necessarily going to give you much information on particular topic holes.

 

Eta, re: areas to focus on, if it were me, my goals (which may be different from your goals) would involve aiming toward work that's reasonably close to her ability level in math and language - in particular, to see that there is significant intellectual challenge in at least one subject - and for other subjects I'd capitalize on any special interests that she has.  I'd probably want to supplement EPGY math with something more interesting - fun math books, problem-solving/puzzle-solving, that sort of thing.  Depending on what level she's working at in math, you could have her start Alcumus (free on-line problem-solving program at AoPS).  I liked EPGY math when my kids were younger (though I have concerns about the amount of practice and the whole thing is kinda boring), but at the 5th grade level, I'd at least want to supplement with more fun stuff and some challenging (for her) problem-solving.  It sounds like you want to get more involved in the nitty gritty of what topics she has mastered and what lies ahead - looking at lots of different programs, and what they teach when, is one way to get started with that.

[Dmmetler]

I went to using the EXPLORE last year for DD because she had maxed out the TerraNova. I'll probably test this year with the EXPLORE and then go to using either the SAT or ACT. We test through Belin-Blank, and I've found them willing to help with the "where do I go from here" type questions. An added bonus of the EXPLORE is that it's accepted by DYS if you're at all interested in that program.  I'm not required to test by my cover school-if I was, I'd use the grade level test knowing that she'd max it out for them, and then test with the out of level test for my purposes.

 

 

The DORA and ADAM (both online, both adaptive, available through HSBC) were good for DD until she maxed them out. I'll probably use their Algebra assessment at the end of this year, for my benefit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geniusmom]

Thanks for the responses.

 

I meant to say ACT Explore, oops.

 

NWEA MAP sounds interesting, but I am not in the Northwest, and, it doesn't appear available to home schoolers.  For math she is doing an enrichment through Hopkins she really enjoys, a Problem Solving class...  

 

I have looked into Terra Nova series, thank you for the suggestion, and that does look promising, if they will let me proctor the test.

 

Thanks again for your responses.

 

 

[JeanM]

Have you looked at the PASS test? It's put out by Hewitt. They have a short "placement" test, which determines the level of the rest of the test. You can administer it at home, too.

 

 

[geniusmom]

Have you looked at the PASS test? It's put out by Hewitt. They have a short "placement" test, which determines the level of the rest of the test. You can administer it at home, too.

I will check that out, thanks!

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

We've done the ITBS one year above GL for years, and like it.  As an SAT tutor by night, I would NOT recommend using that to gauge ability, since it's such a weird test.  The ACT is more straight forward, albeit faster.

[Dmmetler]

The SAT-10 bears no resemblance whatsoever to the SAT. It's basically the same as the ITBS or Terra Nova.

[EKS]

I'd use the ITBS two years up.  Have them report scores as compared to both her age-grade and to the two-grades-up grade.  If, as compared to kids two grades up, she scores at the 90th percentile or above for most of the the subtests and for the core and/or composite totals, next year move to three grades up.