Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Stanford Achievement Test / TerraNova Achievement

Our DD8 did not qualify for her school's GT pullout program because of her group administered ITBS achievement results. She did well on the NNAT (99th) and her classroom achievement is very good (high straight A's). However, she is easily distracted in group situations, so we feel that having an individually administered test might more accurately show her achievement level.

The school said they will consider the math and reading results from either the Stanford Achievement Test or TerraNova Achievement (CAT/6 I guess?) test. We have to find and pay for the test administrator.

Does anyone have advice on which test we should pursue?

DD8 is lightning fast with responses to questions (and at reading), but probably to the point where she loses some accuracy. We tell her during testing to slow things down a bit and think through the question and her answer a couple of times, but in her mind I think she still puts lots of emphasis on speed.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I, too, have experience with the SAT10 and not the TerraNova. I've administered the SAT10 to homeschooled students. The tester tells the student that s/he has about x amount of time to complete each segment but it isn't technically timed and the student can go over the time allotted with no issue. The tester is encouraged to move the testing along and encourage the child to finish if the child is taking forever and is clearly not being productive.

The ITBS has strict time guidelines. If the child isn't done in x minutes, the test is stopped and that segment left incomplete with the undone questions marked incorrect. I've generally recommended the SAT10 over the ITBS to parents whose kids are slower workers for the reason. That doesn't sound like your dc's issue, though.

The thing that was interesting to me on the SAT10, though, was that it actually seemed to net some pretty high percentiles in the upper elementary grades even when a good number of questions are missed. For instance, in the 5th grade version, I've seen a child miss about 25% of the questions on science and social studies and come out around the 90th percentile on both of those tests. The language arts tests seem to be less forgiving with just a couple missed questions bringing the total down to around the same spot (90th percentile or so).

I've never tested a child who has done unusually well on the math portions so I wouldn't know how high the head room is on that part. There are two math subtests. One is straight calculation. The second is more of a reasoning test with a lot of word problems.

Hi. I'm a little familiar with the Terra Nova test. From what I can tell, and from what a principal from a different school told us, it also has a low ceiling.

Just as an FYI, the Terra Nova has achievement test sections (reading, math, science, social studies--with several sub-test breakdowns) but it also has an "in-View" test (which is more of an iq type test) as well. I don't know if you would want to go that route, but I thought I'd mention it.

You might look at seeing if there is a practice book your child can use. My dd's school spent about a week "prepping" for the test (taking a practice section each morning) and going over the answers. That way they know the format of the thing.

BTW, I empathize with you, and your child who is distracted in group situations. We've never had much luck with standardized tests with my older dd-- scores all over the board. The inconsistency can be maddening!