http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/tests_tell_us.htm"Grade-level or group achievement tests are criterion-referenced, so they contain questions covering just about every aspect of the curriculum at that grade level. Grade-level achievement tests are normed for no more than a single grade level, and at the youngest grades, only 1/2 a grade level (spring or fall). These tests have little or no content to determine just how far above or below grade level a student might be. Grade-level achievement tests that report grade-equivalent scores outside of the grade level being tested, really don't provide that kind of information. They can only determine if the child is at, below, or above grade level. For example, a 3rd grader gets a grade-equivalent score of grade 5.8 on a group achievement test. This does not tell us anything about how the 3rd grader might score on a 5th grade test; instead it means that, had a late 5th grader taken the same 3rd grade test, he would have scored similarly to this student.
Common grade-level achievement tests include the Terra Nova/CTBS, Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), California Achievement (CAT), Stanford Achievement (SAT), and all state mandated grade level achievement tests such as PSSA in Pennsylvania, NJASK, GEPA, and HSPA in New Jersey, TAAS and TAKS in Texas, and others. Of these, the ITBS can be scored both as criterion-referenced and norm-referenced. The ITBS, too, gives us a clue in its name: the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Grade-level achievement tests are only a measure of basic skills.
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