amitymamaThe Attachment Parenting Community

Nicole · 07-02-2008, 05:25 PM

When our children are being tested using something like the state SAT, are they tested at the previous year's grade level for entry into the next level OR are they tested at the following year's level to show that they are prepared to enter that grade level.

For example:
If your child has completed 9th grade and is entering 10th grade, are the state SATs that they take at the end of the school year labeled 9th grade (for the year completed) or 10th grade (for the incoming year)?

Thank you very much for your help!

annb · 07-02-2008, 05:37 PM

I think it depends on the test.
I just tested my son using the CAT-E from Seton, and I tested him on the level for K and he is going into 1. It said it was scored/leveled for students who had completed the 3rd quarter of K. I had called up and asked, since ds has done a fair amount of 1st grade work if I should do the next level test, or have it scored differently and in my case was told to just do it as it was, since I am just trying to show the school ds is going to in the fall that he has completed the skills for K.

Anyway I don't know if any of my rambling helped, but I think in general it is to test exactly at the level they are at, so if it was end of year, then it would be a test of end of the year "9th grade" but if it was at the begininning, it would be beginning of the year "10th grade"

TeriMomOf4 · 07-02-2008, 06:22 PM

In my experience, you test the grade they are completing. Typically, the public schools do their testing toward the end of the school year (April here) and they are testing on the things that they learned during that year.

Tap dancin mama · 07-02-2008, 10:59 PM

ITA what every one else said. My kids take the SAT-9 from Bob Jones University. On the scores sheet it tells you exactly where they scored down to the month. So if you have a 4th grader, it would say something like 4.6 for a reading score which would mean 4th year 6th month. Clear as mud LOL?

RFamHere · 07-04-2008, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tap dancin mama

On the scores sheet it tells you exactly where they scored down to the month. So if you have a 4th grader, it would say something like 4.6 for a reading score which would mean 4th year 6th month. Clear as mud LOL?

The grade equivalence score is the most misunderstood score. For example, if a child takes a 6th grade test and scores 7.9 in math - that doesn't mean that the child is doing 7th grade 9th month math. It means that given the same 6th grade test, the child scored the same as the average 7th grade 9th month student on the same test.

I'm not saying that you misunderstood the results, but I've heard people say, "Well the test said my child is two years ahead in math." However the test was saying that they just do their own grade level really well.

Tap dancin mama · 07-04-2008, 10:57 AM

I know that part about if they score over. But I thought if they scored under it was acurate?

RFamHere · 07-04-2008, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tap dancin mama

I know that part about if they score over. But I thought if they scored under it was acurate?

If they score under, say a 3.8 on a 6th grade test, that says they scored what the average 3rd grade 8th month student would score given the exact same 6th grade test.