For us with NWEA, the testing environment dictates which score I count on more than anything. For example, my son's language usage went down 24 points this last test. After asking what happened and discussing it with him, I discovered that a 1st grader sat next to him and was taking the syllables test at the same time. The kid was clapping out syllables for 20 min of the 30 min test. My kid's brain was mushy at that point :-)
If it's a disability, then you want different testing accomodations for sure. But we have seen wild swings that vary just based on what the teacher says. Things like "You're the last one so hurry up!" and "When everyone is done we'll go have snack!" make a major difference in NWEA testing.
Also, the test starts down one level from the previous score. If the child misses those first three questions, for whatever reason, the test drops down an additional level. From what I've been told, if they drop down after the first section, they cannot get back to the previous high level because they've technically dropped down two levels.
So there are lot of variables! I pretty much just look at growth across three tests at any point and time. If you take three tests and they met the growth goal, then good. If not, then why?
