Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Stanford Achievement Test

Hi,

It's Questions with questions again. Looking for Answers. Thought I'd make trouble over here.

Any experience with the Stanford Achievement Test for elementary school children? Do you think the scores are accurate, or do they give higher results than the WIAT-II tests?

Thanks.

http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/publication/publication.cfm?id=376
Here is an interesting website regarding standardized achievement testing.
I don't remember the source, but I read somewhere that the norm group for the Stanford-9 was very old and based on a small group of low to average students. The critic asserted that every state yielded above average results.
I read somewhere else that the best way to determine the actual academic standing of a district is to look at the SAT and ACT results because they are normed every year and there is always a 50/50 split on either side of the mean.

Thank you. At our son's school, they had the 10th edition. I thought it was easier, as the scores were somewhat higher than the WIAT-II. Maybe because it was a couple months later in the year - or because he liked it (no homework that week, apparently, so well worth taking the test as far as he was concerned). The highest scores are consistent, however, with what the WIAT showed.

Thanks to you both for responding. I never paid much attention to these scores until now.

My 5 cents...
When my kids were at private school they had to write SAT yearly.
Fast forward to public, where they took IOWA.
Results are almost identical in the case of one and identical in the case of the other.

Thank you, Dottie. That does explain my questions. I had wondered how the same percentage correct in first grade as kindergarten translated to a slightly lower score (e.g., "environment," whatever that is, went from 99.9th/GE4.3 to 97.9/GE4.6 from k to 1st). I guess proportionately more kids know the answers in first grade than they did in kindergarten. And I would think that "listening" translates to the WIAT-II oral language composite, which were exactly the same as the Stanford Test. It was the academic scores that improved from WIAT to Stanford, and your explanation tells me that is because the bar is lower b/c it's a grade level test, not an above grade level test. Thank you!

ps - I have no idea why there is a smiley face on every one of my posts. I just hit quick reply and type. At least it's not a frown...

smily face is when you are logged on. when you are not it is a grey sleeping looking face.
It does kind of look like a frown though.

I'm only confused about what to do with my own daughter.
In most of life I am competent (but poor spelling) professional.

Thanks, again. You're right (again). Reading the explanation it says stanine. I saw stanines on the OT evaluations, too. Could you please explain the concept of stanine? The test explanation talks about standard deviations, but I don't understand the significance of that. Why do they calculate stanines if they have percentiles?

ps - I like that sleeping face!

Thank you, Dottie. That graph explained it all, and I was able to look at the test scores in a completely different light. Interestingly, the school doesn't do anything individually with the test results. They don't even give them out unless they are specifically asked for them (and for a year, I didn't even know I could ask). In fact, the kindergarten teacher had told me don't worry about them, they don't mean anything at this age, so I assumed they were pretty low. I think the school uses them to track where the school is as a whole with respect to academic performance.

This year my daughter took the Stanford Achievement Test. The district gave the test to all the GT students in the district as a pilot group. I guess they are trying to determine if they want to give it district-wide. We haven't received the scores yet. I think this type of test has more value for schools to determine how they compare to other schools rather than having value for individual students. I would like to see more nation wide testing rather than individual state testing. Not in addition to but as a substitute. You cannot have adequate accountability when you are testing yourself.

I am not expecting the results of this achievement test to tell me much about my daughter. She has already taken the SB-IV and WJ. I will post my impression once I receive the results which we should receive soon.

Summer