Placement Tests Advice (Also, any good free ones)?

[besimistic]

Hi. I want some advice on using placement tests at home, especially in the early years, as well as recommendations.

We started homeschooling DS8 and DD6 just over a month ago. Because of all the school cancellations and online "classes" (which we eventually stopped doing as our kids simply were not made for it) during the past 1.5 years there are noticeable gaps in their education.

I was thinking of using some placement tests in English and math that they can do now and then again in about a year so that I can not only identify and correct current gaps but also have a rough measuring stick for their progress this year.

As a parent it seems that it might also help me to do them annually so that I can see where some gaps are and correct them, which seems to be different from the purpose of these exams in the school system, which are meant more for overall school evaluations instead of personalized student evaluation.

 

Here are some questions I have after searching through the forums. I'd greatly appreciate your feedback you may have:

1) Have you found doing annual placement exams beneficial as a rough tracking of progress in different subjects?

2) Do you recommend any (preferably free)?

3) Are Lifepac's placement tests relatively accurate for grade levels?

4) Are there any paid placement exams that do something significantly better that makes it worth paying, especially in the grammar stage? I'm an expat from NJ so I don't need to certify any testing (at least that's what I found online) so I don't need that feature.

Thanks!

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by besimistic
To make it more precise to the content.

[HomeAgain]

A placement test will give you mostly accurate placement in a program or curriculum.

For standardized testing, many states will have their practice exams available online, but we use the CAT administered through Academic Excellence.  It's about $20, but it does give me insight to what ds may have missed/not grasped or what wasn't taught.  I sit and watch so I can ignore the silly errors and just get a good idea of what he's struggling with.  Not all programs teach things at the same level, so it just gives me a good idea of what to work on.

 

My advice - I look for programs that are flexible, so that I can tailor it to a child and flip back and forth, starting with a point that is extremely easy so we can get into the groove of how the material works first before hitting sticky points.  And I always try to start with free and work my way forward.  There are a lot of free programs listed in the General Education part of the board.  I don't often NEED to test if we start at the beginning and work our way forward quickly to an appropriate level.  When I do that, I know what's been explicitly taught and move off that.

[PeterPan]

I agree with @HomeAgain that your annual testing desire is best done with standardized testing. The CAT doesn't take long and will be fine. Most standardized tests give you stanines telling you how the dc performs relative to someone in that grade level. If you want actual grade level results, you need achievement testing, which is typically done with a psychologist. The Woodcock Johnson is a good one for that. I got it done once with a tutor for $75, and it will give actual grade levels. 

I think as you are working with your kids more you'll have a sense of where they are and not feel so worried about whether they're doing ok. Your state may mandate testing or you may decide to do it anyway. However I think you'll get in sync with your kids and generally know where they are.

3 hours ago, besimistic said:

I was thinking of using some placement tests in English and math

There is so much review in language arts curricula that generally you place by reading level, without concern for previous instructional experience. So if your ds8 is a rising 3rd grader (just a guess) and strong reader, you would go ahead and place him into a 3rd grade language arts curriculum of your choice and not even worry about it. He'll likely be fine. Ditto for the 6 yo rising 1st grader. You'd just plunk them in, no problems. For *reading* obviously you will want to make sure the reading level matches the curriculum you're using. One way to do that is to look at the books they are currently reading and look up the *lexile* for those books. Kids will typically pleasure read 2-3 grade levels below their instructional reading level. 

For math, I would just use the placement test for the curriculum or curricula you are considering. 

[Not_a_Number]

I've done that a little bit 🙂 . Mostly to track how they are doing as opposed to place them, though. 

My experience is that some curricula will use words that are not standard, and using those tests would not be a good idea, unless you plan to teach the kids the words ahead of time. 

I've personally used Singapore placements tests once or twice and that didn't require any unusual words, if I remember correctly. Saxon also does not, although they also have VERY straightforward problems most of the time. 

For later years, I also like using AoPS placement tests. 

[besimistic]

@PeterPan, @HomeAgain and @Not_a_Number, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your help. 

[Janeway]

On 7/11/2021 at 6:25 AM, besimistic said:

Hi. I want some advice on using placement tests at home, especially in the early years, as well as recommendations.

We started homeschooling DS8 and DD6 just over a month ago. Because of all the school cancellations and online "classes" (which we eventually stopped doing as our kids simply were not made for it) during the past 1.5 years there are noticeable gaps in their education.

I was thinking of using some placement tests in English and math that they can do now and then again in about a year so that I can not only identify and correct current gaps but also have a rough measuring stick for their progress this year.

As a parent it seems that it might also help me to do them annually so that I can see where some gaps are and correct them, which seems to be different from the purpose of these exams in the school system, which are meant more for overall school evaluations instead of personalized student evaluation.

 

Here are some questions I have after searching through the forums. I'd greatly appreciate your feedback you may have:

1) Have you found doing annual placement exams beneficial as a rough tracking of progress in different subjects?

2) Do you recommend any (preferably free)?

3) Are Lifepac's placement tests relatively accurate for grade levels?

4) Are there any paid placement exams that do something significantly better that makes it worth paying, especially in the grammar stage? I'm an expat from NJ so I don't need to certify any testing (at least that's what I found online) so I don't need that feature.

Thanks!

 

Placement tests will not help you really, neither will state tests. I use placement tests from the curriculums I use to make sure my children mastered the material taught in that program. However, "on grade level" means so many different things. Texas state testing emphasizes junk and developmentally inappropriate skills. For example, kids must write a 2 page paper in 3rd grade, but do not need to know spelling or grammar. Spelling and grammar are not even a part of the rubric. Private schools in Texas NEVER use the state testing to see progress. Better schools, and most states I think too, would teach a child to form a proper sentence before wanting a two page paper. 

If you really want to see how your child is doing, just pick a subject, stick with it, and then see how the child did in relation to that topic. Early years about learning to learn. It does not matter if you cover weather, energy, and geology in 3rd grade and then botany and human anatomy in 4th grade but the public school covered something completely different. If you cover less topics, chances are, they will know more in depth about fewer topics. If you cover more topics, chances are, they will know a little bit about way more topics. There is very little retained in to higher levels anyway so the topics do not matter so much. But learning how to process that information, learning how to learn, and research, and write a good basic paper and do math, that is all what will set your child up for very successful older years in school.

[PeterPan]

19 minutes ago, Janeway said:

Placement tests will not help you really, neither will state tests.

That is because the real answer is chocolate. 

[mom2bee]

  

On 7/11/2021 at 7:25 AM, besimistic said:

Hi. I want some advice on using placement tests at home, especially in the early years, as well as recommendations.

Here are some questions I have after searching through the forums. I'd greatly appreciate your feedback you may have:

1) Have you found doing annual placement exams beneficial as a rough tracking of progress in different subjects?

2) Do you recommend any (preferably free)?

3) Are Lifepac's placement tests relatively accurate for grade levels?

4) Are there any paid placement exams that do something significantly better that makes it worth paying, especially in the grammar stage? I'm an expat from NJ so I don't need to certify any testing (at least that's what I found online) so I don't need that feature.

Thanks!

 

Option 1: Ultimate Phonics has a reading test that you can print for free and administer at home to determine how well your child can read phonetically. You can administer tests for K-4 level reading and the instructions are on the page. At the bottom of the page it tells you which phonetic concepts are being taught. It's super easy to do.

Unfortunately, I don't know of anything as easy to do for arithmetic and this test is strictly measuring the skill of decoding.  (Decoding fluency is super important in reading! It's probably 75% of the reading puzzle at the K-2 level)

Option 2: You can use the website easyCBM and make a Lite account for free. It has a series of printable assessments that you can print for your students and input the scores for online. I haven't played with it extensively yet. It gives you access to Printable versions of all of the student materials for K-8.

Reading has different subtests by grade:

• K-1: Letter Naming
• K-1: Letter Sounds
• K-1: Phoneme Segmenting
• K-3: Word Reading Fluency NOT PHONETICALLY BASED! Perfectly skipable in my opinion
• 1-8: Passage Reading Fluency
• 2-8: Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension

Mathematics has different subtests by grade

• Numbers and Operations
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Numbers Operations and Algebra

I'm not personally able to endorse the easyCBM tests, but they are there as a free option for you to administer to maybe look for specific skills that your children might be strong vs weak in for their grade ranges.

Option 3: Let's Go Learn has online diagnostic assessments that you can purchase and your kids take online. It's $25 per subject and if you more than 1 there is a small discount. You don't have to do anything but pay and have the kids take the tests.

 

 

[besimistic]

1 hour ago, Janeway said:

Texas state testing emphasizes junk and developmentally inappropriate skills. For example, kids must write a 2 page paper in 3rd grade, but do not need to know spelling or grammar. Spelling and grammar are not even a part of the rubric.

A part of me felt like laughing but then another part wanted to cry for the kids. Who thinks these things?

For our curriculum I've fallen in love with the tied and tested McGuffey's and I can already see great progress with both kids in just 6 weeks. I saw some estimates for which grade each reader corresponds to but I wanted to have somewhat of a rough guideline for where this fits according to some kind of modern standard and then again after a year so that I can get a better feel for how it's going roughly.

My wife is a non-English speaker and so Math and English is falling on my shoulders. This unfortunately means I don't have anyone else to discuss their English and math development with so I think some kind of regular test during the next couple of years will a least will give me some kind of feedback, even if imperfect and odd. 

[besimistic]

56 minutes ago, mom2bee said:

  

Option 1: Ultimate Phonics has a reading test that you can print for free and administer at home to determine how well your child can read phonetically. You can administer tests for K-4 level reading and the instructions are on the page. At the bottom of the page it tells you which phonetic concepts are being taught. It's super easy to do.

Unfortunately, I don't know of anything as easy to do for arithmetic and this test is strictly measuring the skill of decoding.  (Decoding fluency is super important in reading! It's probably 75% of the reading puzzle at the K-2 level)

Option 2: You can use the website easyCBM and make a Lite account for free. It has a series of printable assessments that you can print for your students and input the scores for online. I haven't played with it extensively yet. It gives you access to Printable versions of all of the student materials for K-8.

Reading has different subtests by grade:

• K-1: Letter Naming
• K-1: Letter Sounds
• K-1: Phoneme Segmenting
• K-3: Word Reading Fluency NOT PHONETICALLY BASED! Perfectly skipable in my opinion
• 1-8: Passage Reading Fluency
• 2-8: Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension

Mathematics has different subtests by grade

• Numbers and Operations
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Numbers Operations and Algebra

I'm not personally able to endorse the easyCBM tests, but they are there as a free option for you to administer to maybe look for specific skills that your children might be strong vs weak in for their grade ranges.

Option 3: Let's Go Learn has online diagnostic assessments that you can purchase and your kids take online. It's $25 per subject and if you more than 1 there is a small discount. You don't have to do anything but pay and have the kids take the tests.

 

 

Thanks for the great suggestions. A phonics test seems perfect for where they are now in their development. 

Much appreciated!