Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Need advice :extended math selection

So true!

paa, have you seen a copy of the test and your dd's answers? I'd ask to see if if you haven't. It sounds like a pre-test that checks to see what your child already knows out of the material that will be taught in the upcoming unit. I can see, in our school district, that it would be possible for a child to have scored above 90% on the state assessment math test yet not score that high on a pre-test for upcoming work, because the state test is testing what has already been taught. I don't have experience with MAPs testing except for knowing that the score you've posted is really high and that it tests ahead of grade level (I think), so that may not be the case with your dd's testing.

There are several reasons that it's important to see the actual test and your dd's answers. First reason is to see the types of questions that were asked so that you know for sure that she really does know the material. The most important reason is to be able to tell if she really did work the questions incorrectly or if she made "silly" mistakes. My ds' school used pretests during 4h/5th grade, when he was working ahead in 6th grade and higher math at home, yet he routinely missed questions on the school's pretests by doing things like dropping signs, reversing pairs of numbers before adding etc. He even did things on a few tests like skip an entire page because it stuck to the previous page when he was flipping through the test or it was the back of a page and he just didn't notice it. It was clear from how he worked the problems, however, that he knew what he was doing -so if you find evidence like that, you can use it to advocate that the score isn't accurately representing your dd's knowledge.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - another thing to ask - was the test timed? And ask your dd if she ran out of time before she'd had a chance to finish her work.