My 6th grade son had a fall nwea reading score of 243 and a fall nwea math score of 252. How should we interpret these scores?

Oh, I get to be the first to post the link this time .

Someone else posted this on this board a while back, and I've found it most helpful:

http://pickens.it.schoolfusion.us/m...ssionid=14d1e9266e4482d198ebc39c6e6bc9c3

His reading scores is in the 99th percentile for fall of 7th grade and his math score is in the 99th percentile for fall of 6th grade.

Cricket pointed you in the right direction. I'll also add those are great scores! If you look at page 131 of the report, you'll see that his reading score is in the 91% for fall of 11th grade. On page 140, you'll see his math score is in the 77% for 11th grade.

I'm reading it as 252 being the 99th percentile for fall of 11th grade reading. 242 is 99th for fall of 7th and 243 (his score) is 98th for fall of 8th -- no?

Still great, great scores.

You're right and thanks for catching it. I had 253 in my head for his reading score when I looked. I'll fix it in my above post. Like you said, still a great score!

Also Rick you may want to look into SAT/talent search options for him if you haven't already done so. Copying Dottie's link from another thread:
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10260.aspx

Just a teeny tiny little point: be careful how you interpret this. I have a DD10 who scores highly in math and reading. Her math scores would indicate she blows late middle and high schoolers away, but in reality she cannot multiply without great effort and she routinely makes mistakes in addition and subtraction. Math, in fact, is painful for her. This for a 99th percentile Math, ACT Explore medalist, and DYS. High scores in a multiple choice test aren't reflective in real life skills as far as I have noticed. I don't find they correlate to real math applications. In reading, yes, but in math, in our case, no.

I think part of the problem is our expectation of what we think an average 11th grader can do for math vs. the reality. I've read examples of questions that 50% of 11th graders miss on a standardized test. The questions seem surprisingly easy. Then again, I don't have much first hand experience with average when it comes to tests and I suspect many others who post here don't either.

For example, here are some questions from the NAEP that are considered medium (answered correctly by 40 to 59% of 12th graders):

10. If a 2 by 18 rectangle has the same area as a square, what is the length of a side of the square?
A.4
B.6
C.8
D.10
E.12

9. If the digit in the tens place of 37,241 is increased by one and the digit in the thousands place is decreased by one, how has the number been changed?

A.The number has been decreased by 990.
B.The number has been decreased by 1,000.
C.The number has been decreased by 1,010.
D.The number has been increased by 10.
E. The number has been increased by 1,010.

7.
1 gallon = 4 quarts
1 quart = 2 pints

The number of pints in 10 gallons could be determined by performing which of the following operations?

A.Multiplying 10 by 2
B.Dividing 10 by 6
C.Multiplying 10 by 6
D.Dividing 40 by 2
E.Multiplying 40 by 2

My DS 12 recorded a 272 math this fall. While he very much enjoyed the fact that the test moved with him and has resulted in some very positive and much needed subject acceleration for him, he was able to reason answers that he yet needs to cover in depth in cirriculum. An example is that he reasoned through some trig questions by process of elimination and has not yet studied trig. Sure beats making a silly arithmetic mistake on a set 40 question test and being assessed that way.

I've found in life you rarely get multiple choice answers. When you need to figure out how much change to give someone when they hand you a bill, it doesn't help much to reason the answer. Reasoning is a great skill, but in math, I don't find it helps solve when accuracy is need.

Case in point, my DD10 was given the honors math screening test for middle school. She bombed it. Completely failed. Why? Because she actually had to know HOW to solve problems, carry down a zero when multiplying two digits, and where to put numbers when dividing. Great she scores in 11th grade on the MAP test, but it did not reflect on her ability to solve problems. Theoretical mathmetics, sounds lovely. But I want her to be able to balance her checkbook.