CTBS Terra Nova scores and the Common Application?

[swimmermom3]

On the Common App., in the Homeschool section, there is a question about outside evaluation and a request for any other standardized tests beyond SAT/ACT, AP,  and SAT Subject. This is what I have included:

 

"Please see the uploaded course descriptions that include all courses with outside evaluations.  Descriptions of the student's courses with outside evaluation exceed 500 words.

 

The student took the CTBS Terra Nova 1 - Level 19 Survey in June of 2013 to satisfy the Oregon School Activities Association requirement for yearly testing in order to participate in high school swimming.

 

The student took the CTBS Terra Nova 1 - Level 20 Survey on Sept. 2, 2014 to comply with Oregon Home School law and satisfy Oregon School Activities Association requirement for yearly testing in order to participate in high school swimming."

 

Is this okay instead of of descriptions for the outside courses?  There are 24 descriptions for outside evaluations (we do semesters) and I would need some serious compression.

 

I am assuming I should add the CTBS Terra Nova scores? I only have the percentiles for 2014, but not 2013. Problematic?  Will anyone care?  Also, I do not have a set of scores for 2015 and we will be submitting a "portfolio" to the high school as an alternative to the test. Should I note this as well since someone may wonder what happened to the 2015 test score?

[JanetC]

My outside providers answer is also to see the profile and course description documents.

 

We have a yearly testing requirement in Washngton. Since my transcript documents that I followed the homeschool law, I went ahead and put our test scores there, and answered the common app form with "Results of annual assessments required by Washington law are available on the transcript"

 

If you don't want your test scores on your transcript, will things fit if you just list the date, test, and score without the explanations of why each test was taken? If not, just list the most recent tests until you run out of room. Nobody needs a 9th grade standardized reading score for admissions purposes anyway.

[bugs]

Well, it looks like I missed something. I did not put our annual testing on the CA. Ds took the ACT in 10th grade for that year, but I did not put anything for 9th. I also included the Compass test that  he had to pass to go DE.

 

On the other hand, when I completed the CA last year for dd, I did not put 9th or 10th grade testing in either and she was admitted to all the schools she applied to.

 

[Kareni]

I can't recall if that question was asked when my daughter used the Common Application.  Had it been, I would have included her National Latin and Greek Exams.  (I don't know if I would have remembered to include the state test she took in 10th grade.)  Those scores were already on my daughter's transcript, so I might well have said to see her transcript.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Sebastian (a lady)]

When I was answering these types of questions, I tried to think about what the question might be trying to elicite and what I wanted the admissions offices to know.

 

I think this question is trying to quantify what can be pretty different experiences that homeschoolers may have.  There isn't an overarching authority and often the same term is used to mean different things.  My kids have been dual enrolled at two different colleges, even though neither school used the phrase dual enrollment.  And at some other schools, dual enrollment means that a college teacher comes to the high school campus to teach the class, which is composed only of high school aged students.  

 

Online class could mean anything from a self-paced set of online lessons, to a MOOC, to a distinct schedule but asynchronous lessons, to weekly classes, to almost daily online lessons with an offsite teacher supervising.  

 

The standardized test question lets you give information that might not otherwise be part of the college application.  National Latin Exam, AMC 10, Compass and other college placement tests, even Terra Nova or other annual progress testing might be worth including if it is something that helps to put the application into context.  

 

Usually when I ask admissions officers what they are looking for, they reply that they are looking for details so they can understand what the student's education consisted of.  

[swimmermom3]

By law, in Oregon, we are required to have a standardized test at the end of tenth grade and to register with our education district.

 

In order to participate in sports, the student is required to have a standardized test each year. They must pass in at least the 23rd percentile!  This obviously protects the student athlete. :huh:   The test takes roughly three hours and costs around $70 and it shows absolutely nothing about my son as as student. A bright student could not do any school for two years and still earn solid scores placing their grade level at post secondary.

 

To my way of thinking, the ACT, Advanced Placement, and SAT Subject scores are far more relevant. I did not include the Terra Nova scores on the transcript, so I suppose they should be on the Home School section. Sigh.

 

For those of you that reported them, did you use the following format:

 

Subtest Title              RS          NP          NCE          S9          GE          SS

 

Reading                    34/34      99            99               9           13.0       838

Language

Mathematics

Total Score     

 

You all can just fill in the blanks.  Can I just report the numbers under the total score for each year?

 

Is my attitude about this test showing through?

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

We had one year (freshman) of state tests and I didn't include them since they did add anything to application package-either positively or negatively. Other tests i.e. AP, National Latin Exam, etc. all appeared on the transcript or elsewhere in common app so I didn't reiterate that information.

 

For that particular question  I listed each of the outside course providers; course title; one semester or year-long; how often the class met; was it live-online or in-person or asynchronous, etc.; referred them to the course descriptions attached to the transcript for content info.  Somehow writing course content twice seemed silly.

 

As Sebastian points out above I think many of the homeschool questions are prompts trying to elicit the information admissions officers need to evaluate a kid in a context they can understand.  For very conscientious parents who have educated themselves about the admissions process and are taking time with carefully crafted transcripts, writing course descriptions, school profiles, counselor letters, etc.  it may seem like a lot of repetition. For other parents a question like this might be the prompt they need to give needed information that would make their kid shine.