Iowa Achievement Testing....

[Kelli in TN]

I am looking at the BJU site and trying to figure out what we would need to order for our co-op. If you could look at this BJU Iowa Test Order Page and explain to me what we need if we want the most basic, most affordable option for 4th-12th grade. It does need to be sufficient to fulfill the requirements for Honor Society membership, just in case we want to go that direction.

 

Thanks in advance, I am having trouble knowing what we need to order.

[MIch elle]

nt

[momofkhm]

But for home testing, I ordered one test per child at the right grade level and a "directions for administration" book. I have the right levels to allow testing for all three kids at the same time - it worked out great! (levels 9-14 can be tested together)

 

If you do testing the way our co-op did it, you need a test per child and then a direction book per level - each level was in a different room.

 

FWIW, I ordered mine from Piedmont and it looked like a much simpler order process, to me!

 

HTH

[Sandy in Indy]

Do you have a registered tester? BJU won't let you order the tests without an approved tester.

 

I'm not sure about IOWA and honor society. Most kids old enough for honor society have taken at least the PSAT (at least around here!). I'm not sure what 90% means in terms of the IOWA test.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Our local homeschool support organization (Education Resource Center) does annual testing using BJU services. They do the Stanford, not the ITBS, but I think it would be similar.

 

They have everything set up through BJU for the test, but they don't order the tests. Everyone orders their own tests, but has them sent to the Approved Tester (the BJU order form allows for this). After the testing, the ERC sends the tests back to BJU for scoring. Then, the results are sent to the parents. the ERC doesn't see the results.

 

I second calling the BJU testing center and having them set this up for you the first time. Parents tend to get a bit ruffled when these kinds of things don't go right. :)

[momofkhm]

Do you have a registered tester? BJU won't let you order the tests without an approved tester.

 

I'm not sure about IOWA and honor society. Most kids old enough for honor society have taken at least the PSAT (at least around here!). I'm not sure what 90% means in terms of the IOWA test.

 

According to what I signed last year at the co-op and then again this year with Piedmont, you don't have to register, just confirm that you have a Bachelors degree. I think BJU is adding something to the requirements, maybe to cover themselves?

 

The Iowa does satisfy requirements for the NHS. It's a line on the scores, the composite I think. My oldest has been in NHS for 2 years now and took the Iowa both times to get in. It's why we did the Iowa this year instead of Woodcock Johnson. (It was important to dh that dd get in NHS.)

 

Mandatory Requirement for ESA membership:

 

*

 

 

A test score of 1800 (SAT) or 26 (ACT) or 180 (PSAT) or a 90% on the composite/complete battery on the IOWA or Stanford nationally normed standardized achievement tests is required for ESA membership. All tests must be administered in a group setting. Parent administered tests are not acceptable.

 

 

This is from the Eta Sigma Alpha National Home School Honor Society site

 

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[cworthy]

I would second the advice to call BJU. I had to call last with with an ITBS question and they went above and beyond to help and were very, very nice.

[Kelli in TN]

What I am asking is do we need the Cognitive Abilities Test for $35.50 or the ITBS for $44.00 or do we need one of the more expensive options? We want the bare bones test, which one is it?

 

Can you tell I have not had my kids test much?

 

And we don't have an approved tester, yet. But we do have two moms with bachelor's degrees who can be approved.

[abbeyej]

For "bare bones", you just want the ITBS. That's the achievement test. It will cover language arts, math, science, social studies, reference materials... When I test with a group, we do three 3-hour days (including breaks to run around and have snacks). You can test 3rd-8th grades in a single classroom, since their instructions, samples and time limits are all the same.

 

CogAT is an abilities test (as opposed to achievement). It looks at problem solving skills in three areas: verbal, quantitative (numbers-related) and non-verbal (shapes and images). I find it a useful test to have kids take on occasion -- but it's absolutely not necessary for what you're doing right now.

 

You won't be able to order till you have someone in your group get approved. And the advice to call BJU with any questions is good. I've found them to be very helpful and responsive.

[Kelli in TN]

Thanks, Abbey, that's what I needed to know. The co-op wanted to know how much this will cost before we venture into getting our testers approved and so forth.

[abbeyej]

Thanks, Abbey, that's what I needed to know. The co-op wanted to know how much this will cost before we venture into getting our testers approved and so forth.

 

When our home school group does the testing, we charge the price of the test (we do ITBS over three days and CogAT on a fourth -- parents can do just the ITBS or the combo) plus tax (check with BJU) and $15 per child to cover renting the building where we give the test and other administrative costs (shipping back to BJU, extra pencils and scratch paper, envelopes and postage to send results back to all of the parents, and various other incidentals). If you don't have to pay rent for the extra days in your building, you could probably just charge an extra $3-5 per child to cover those costs. (This assumes all of the adults are volunteering their time and you're not paying the testers.)

 

You'll need an approved tester for every "room" (3-8 can be done together and 9-12 together in another room), and you'll likely want at least one additional parent volunteer in each room as well. (Depending on the number of kids -- it's *possible* to do just one adult in each room, though I've found it very helpful to have two.)

[Kelli in TN]

 

You'll need an approved tester for every "room" (3-8 can be done together and 9-12 together in another room), and you'll likely want at least one additional parent volunteer in each room as well. (Depending on the number of kids -- it's *possible* to do just one adult in each room, though I've found it very helpful to have two.)

 

I was going to propose that we only do grades 4-12th and do them in two groups (there are only 6 families in co-op this year and even if we doubled in size next year it would still not be too many kids for two groups) We currently have two moms with bachelor's degrees that can get approved and then those of us who don't have bachelor's degrees will be acting as helpers and providing care to the younger children of testers.