Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Help understand my second grader's SCAT scores

Please help me understand my Second graders SCAT scores .

I just checked them online

Quantitative Raw score 40 , scaled 452 , percentile 94

Verbal Raw score 32 , scaled 429 , Percentile 64

Below is the information found on the JHU website
Grade 2 >= 435 SCAT Verbal or 440 SCAT Quantitative

Since he made it only in Math is he qualified for CTY or what does it mean. Please help.

My kids have never taken the SCAT so I may not be tons of help, but have you seen the 2010 SCAT data from JHU? It is, of course, last year's data, but for 2nd grade boys who took the SCAT through JHU last year, his math score is better than 92% of them and his verbal score is better than 58%. Perhaps the percentiles you were given are for 2nd graders from this year.

Either way, he did very well. Given that the kids taking this test are all very high achievers, even in his lower scoring area, he's well within the middle of the pack of bright kids.

He should also be eligible for their awards ceremony with his math score. It looks like he could take summer math or science courses through CTY and just barely missed the cut-off for the humanities courses: http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/yselig.html

Thank you criket2,

I am surprised that there is a huge difference in his percentiles (Quantitative and math). His MAP test scores were 216 and 217 for reading and math respectively at his school so I am confused.

I wonder if this is normal ?

A 30 percentile difference :
Quantitative Raw score 40 , scaled 452 , percentile 94

Verbal Raw score 32 , scaled 429 , Percentile 64

I actually think that is quite normal. Davidson has an article which notes how kids scoring the 99th percentile on grade level tests aren't at the same achievement level and that this is where an above level test can give you an idea of how far above level the kid is.

Scroll down a ways here: http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10150.aspx to see the following:

"VanTassel-Baska (1986) showed the appropriateness of using the SAT as an above-level test, and as a diagnostic tool. The following table was adapted from table presented in her article.

Table 1
Breakdown of SAT Score Ranges of Students Scoring in the 99th Percentile on In-Grade Achievement Tests SAT-M
Range % Students
Scoring SAT-V
Range % Students
Scoring
200-300 2% 200-300 6%
310-400 21% 310-400 39%
410-500 40% 410-500 40%
510-600 29% 510-600 13%
610-700 6% 610-700 2%
710-800 1% 710-800 1%
(Rounded) (Rounded) "

Basically, they took kids who scored in the 99th percentile on a grade level math or reading test, gave them the SAT as an above level test and had scores come out ranging from 200-800.

FWIW, we see something similar w/ our dd12. Pre-skip, she scored in the upper 90s on grade level math and reading achievement tests. Math was usually a bit lower than reading (97 vs. 99, for instance). Post skip, her math came out mid 90s and reading still 99th. On above level tests, in verbal areas (reading/english) she scores still in the 80s+ (97th on part of the ACT recently) as compared to high school kids, but more average as compared to high school kids (50s or so) on the math portions.

Thank you so much .