Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Iowa Assessment - NSS and National Achievement

I just read that the Iowa Assessments not only have a National Percentile Rank and National Stanine, but also offer a National Standard Score and National Grade Equivalent. We only received both our daughters' stanine and NPR. Are the Standard Scores and Grade Equiv. usually given out? I just emailed the principal for that information and wonder if she will a)be able to get the #'s or b) even want to give it out. Are these results very accurate?
Thanks!

Is that the ITBS? DD has a "SS" number on her ITBS results. I have never had any idea what that means, although I am guessing "standard score."

We did not have any "grade equivalent" information on our results.

Perhaps there is a chart somewhere that explains this? Does anyone have a link?

I think you CAN give the Iowa test out-of-level to get a better idea idea of how a student is performing. I do not think typical grade-level administration of the ITBS tells much beyond how a student is performing for a given grade, though.

Here's the link:
http://www.riversidepublishing.com/scoring/iowa/interpretation.html
I saw that these scores were offered when I looked at some old posts on the forum. I had no idea that these scores were even available. We just received the basic info like you did. I received an email from the AIG teacher this morning, and she is contacting the school district to see if she can get the info. Wonder why this info isn't given out?? It looks like children are given a score that indicates what level they are working at - great info to have.

http://itp.education.uiowa.edu/ia/documents/IA_Interpreting_Results.pdf

Sorry this is a better link to the info.

Oh, wow! You just taught me something. DD8 only took the "Reading" section in the fall, but she scored between end of 7 and beginning of 8th grade on that chart. I had no idea the test was scored this way. I previously looked at her grade-level percentile and then just put the scores aside. FWIW, these are actually pretty consistent with DD's MAP test scores. She also just performed very well on the 8th grade EXPLORE.

I would definitely ask the school for your DD's full scores.

From my understanding the grade equivalents can be misleading and thus are commonly not shared. Where Individual achievement tests like WIAT and WJ age equivalency can crudely mean your child is performing as an average x grader. The ITBS age equivalency doesn't mean that it means your child got the same score in this particular test as an average x grader would get on this particular test. To truly say my child is performing as an average x grader your child would need a score around 50% on ITBS for that specific grade.

I'm sure if I'm misinformed I'll be corrected, but as I understand it the information on grade averages for ITBS is not very useful.

You are correct. The above link says as much in the explanation of the NGE

"National Grade Equivalent: A grade equivalent is a score that describes your student’s achievement on a grade level scale. The NGE is a decimal number that describes academic performance in terms of grade level and month. For example, if your student (as a 3rd grade student) receives a NGE of 4.2 on the third grade Reading Test, this means your student scored as well as a fourth grade student in the second month of the school year if given the same third grade Reading Test"


The test is only testing grade level material not above grade level material. The GEs can be misleading to parents.