Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Help needed re: online assessments asap

I can't go into the details right now, but I need to give DS an online assessment for grade level today! I have him set up to do the CTY one, but worry that it has a higher standard and will suggest a lower grade because it is for gifted kids. Would I be better to give him the Aleks one (my worry with Aleks is that it won't carry enough weight with the school).

Does CTY match up to state curriculum standards, or is it "accelerated" within each grade (so that CTY's 4th grade would be 5th or 6th in a regular school).

Thanks. I'll post the full story when I have the energy/time.

Cat

Would they accept Let's Go Learn http://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/DOMA/

This is the assessment our school psychologist used with DS when trying to demonstrate that he was more than one grade level above for his grade skip.

Do you need an assessment for all subjects or just reading/math?

sorry, I was so distracted I didn't say - math only. Cat

We ultimately chose EPGY over ALEKS, but I would recommend using the ALEKS test if you're in a big hurry. I was shocked to see that the assessment was dead-on with where I thought my son was when he took it a few weeks ago. (His certified teacher took a look at it and completely agreed.)

His district also uses a performance test through Scantron.com, but I'm not sure if individuals can sign up to use it. For the Math, they plugged in the grade level you're testing for, and it keeps progressively getting harder (above that grade level) or drops back, depending on the student's answers. Afterwards, it gives a detailed report of where the child is in terms of standards mastery for each subject, district and national place rankings, things to work on (if any), etc.

thanks these are all helpful. DOMA looks very useful,and the school would like all of the reporting features I suspect.

If the CTY assessment is EPGY, EPGY is intended to match California curriculum standards. IMHO, it's not a particularly good match for my state's standards, but your mileage may vary. It's not intended to be accelerated, but if there's a mismatch in standards, you might find that it's accelerated in some areas (but possibly behind in others).

ALEKS has the ability to report against many different states' standards, which might be useful - what I'm not sure about is whether it works to do the initial assessment for several different grades on the free trial. If not, you might have to guess right first time, for that!

You can reset grade levels at any time, even in the trial. Or, to get the Initial Assessment again, just sign up for a new free trial.

Thanks to everyone for all of this very helpful information. I'll post within the next few days about why this was necessary, but I very much appreciate the many useful replies.

Cat