Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Validating RIT scores

Hello, I'm new here and have a question for the Board.

My daughter was accelerated into 1st Grade at our local Gifted school. The school administered the NWEA tests recently and according to the RIT information I found online, I think she did well.

Reading: 214
Language Usage: 220
Math: 219

I found out later (after the tests) that the school administered the "Survey" tests to the 1st Graders instead of the typical ones because it was their first time taking these tests and most of the students were taking longer than the hour. There has also been talk that the teachers would not consider the RIT scores from the 1st Graders because they're considering these tests as their practice tests.

My dd has been bored with her Math class this year. At the first P/T conferences, the teacher acknowledged that she was ahead of the class and said that she was either going to differentiate within her class or see if she can move her to a higher level. After the Holiday break, I didn't realize that the teachers gave my dd a "test" to see if she would belong to the more advanced Math group. She blew off the test and performed as if she didn't know the material. I believe she did this because she LOVES her Math teacher and didn't want to move on to a different teacher. I let it go because she went through a lot last year when there was uncertainty as to whether or not she should be accelerated. I figured as long as she likes her teacher and she's happy, I shouldn't push. She has complained of being bored with Math all 2nd semester and has lost her interest in Math. At the last P/T conferences, the teacher showed us the class list of grades and her's were the highest by far. When we asked where she might be placed next year, we were told that she would just proceed with this current class so that there wouldn't be any holes in her understanding of Math.

Are her RIT scores invalid because it is her first time taking the NWEA tests? Will her Math scores help the argument to place her ahead in Math next year? She gets attached to her teachers very easily and I believe if she was placed in a more advanced level at the beginning of the year, she is more likely to perform to her potential.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Thanks.

I doubt it. It is more likley to be an underestimate of her abilities than an overestimate.
If they are skeptical, you could ask for her to take the version the second graders took.

http://www.nwea.org/support/details.aspx?content=1024

P.S. You should also look at her percentiles here on pages 133-145:
http://pickens.it.schoolfusion.us/m...ssionid=14d1e9266e4482d198ebc39c6e6bc9c3

Her Reading is >99% of 1st graders and at the 98% of 2nd graders.
Language is >99% of 1st and 96% for 2nd.
Math is >99% first, >99% second, and 92% of 3rd graders.

Can they give you some idea what the average RIT and SD for the 1st and/or 2nd grade class is? I would expect much higher than the national norms.

Thanks, Inky.

The school is set up so that the 1st and 2nd Graders are combined in the same homeroom and they all took the test together, but I'm not sure how they made the 1st Graders take the shorter "Survey" test version.

I'm not sure how soon I'll get the reports. Will the reports have that kind of information? My dd finished her testing on Tuesday. Other homerooms are finishing up this week and make up tests are next week. I suspect the school is waiting until everyone is finished before sending out the reports?

What arguments do you think I can make for them to consider my dd scores even though the teachers believe the scores of the other children were not an accurate assessment of their ability.

It's a computerized test so each student's computer can be set up to give a certain subtests. I wouldn't think that guessing would not inflate the scores because the test goes up and down in difficulty trying to determine the correct RIT/level. I saw the same type of problem come up 5 times on my daughter's math test last year. It seemed obvious that the program thought my daughter should know that kind of problem based on how she answered the other questions so it kept checking.

Her scores are amazing! I have a set of charts that give the norm median scores of each grade level and gifted grade level.

Here's where her scores fall:

Reading:
5th grade median = 212
6th grade median = 217
2nd grade gifted = 209
3rd grade gifted = 218

Language Usage:
7th grade median = 220
3rd grade gifted = 220

Math:
5th grade median = 219
2nd grade gifted = 209
3rd grade gifted = 221

As far as math, I believe all levels should be covered vs. skipped. However, that doesn't mean she should keep the same pace as the rest of the class. Maybe they would allow her to speed through the math curriculum at her own pace.

My son is 7 (so would be in first grade if in public school) and so far keeps a pace of 2+ years of math each year. Up until this month, I required him to do every question on every page. He chose to do 2-10 days worth of math each day depending on his mood. I've recently stopped requiring every problem on every page to completed. He wanted to complete the 3rd grade and 4th grade work simultaneously and get them done because he already knows almost all of it from paying attention to his sister's work. Our math curriculum has 3 pages of the new concept, 3 pages of cumulative review, and 1 test per week. I have him do the first 2 pages. If he gets them all correct, I have him do only the word problems (the only area he tends to miss problems) on the rest of the pages. In this way, he's done 12 weeks of math in only 2 weeks. Next year, we'll slow down again a bit because he doesn't already know the material as his sister hasn't hit that level yet. Maybe one of these solutions (either working at her own pace through all the required work or working through the work and moving on if mastery is obvious) would be acceptable to the school.

These two links show you what's on the NWEA Student Report:

http://www.powayusd.com/projects/ed...20Student%20Growth%20Report%20Sample.pdf
http://www.powayusd.com/projects/ed...udent%20Growth%20Report%20Sample%202.pdf

You'd have national and district norms but not school norms. You may want to approach the school with questions about what the RIT score shows she's ready to learn next.
Some of that can be found using the "Learning Ladder" here:
http://www.powayusd.com/projects/edtechcentral/lladder/Default.asp

The primary test doesn't cover everything the secondary test covers so some of it may not be applicable.

From FAQ here:
http://www.nwea.org/assessments/primary.asp

Thanks JoAnnQN for your response.

Since my dd goes to a gifted school, most of their curriculum is already accelerated. The school groups by ability at the beginning of the school year (right after summer) and her performance last September put her in her current math level. I'm hoping that the school will strongly consider her RIT scores for placement next year.

I think my dd would prefer to learn math similarly to your son. When she used to enjoy math, I would try to find fun worksheets for her to do at home since she was getting bored with the stuff she learns from her math class. We would jump around, but still came back to older material. Perhaps I should try to re-motivate her with more new math topics.

inky! You're definitely the resident expert! Thanks so much for the information!

I'll have to double check with the school, but I believe I remember them saying that their "district" is within the school since it's a private GT school. So perhaps that means the "District Avg" column on the report will give me an idea of how dd ranks amongst her peers in the same school.

That would be a nice twist. If so, you could ask a parent of a 2nd grader for that mean and compare.

It'll be great if my "expertise" can help get your daughter what she needs. Please keep us updated.