Hi Dottie. The tests were from 3rd and 4th grade.
Has anyone else seen this kind of year to year variability in the cognitive portion of standardized testing?
We have although it wasn't standardized school testing. Dd10 has only taken the CogAT once b/c it is her school district's opinion that those scores are fairly set in stone from 3rd grade and won't change. She did take the WISC twice, though one year apart (end of 2nd & end of 3rd). Her VCI was pretty consistent (99.7th and 99th), but her PRI tanked on the second testing (99th to 75th). In her instance I attribute it to two things: her 3rd grade teacher destroyed her confidence and told both her and me repeatedly that dd wasn't very bright and her prior IQ scores were inaccurate, and she has ADD and significant anxiety.
The psych we saw last year said that the second IQ scores didn't make sense b/c she usually saw things like BD go up significantly when tested just one year apart (hers went down significantly) and b/c dd's WIAT and GORT scores done @ the same time as the second testing we significantly higher than expected if the second set of IQ data was accurate. Granted, she was still MG on the second set of IQ data and it more than qualifies as "gifted" per local guidelines (which are 95th percentile in any one area), but she had 19s and 8s and much too high WIAT data for the composite #.
Could be part of the 2e puzzle for both us and you. Dd's MAPS scores (achievement) and CSAP (local NCLB achievement tests) are all over the place as well here.
