That does sound odd. I know very little about testing and tendencies of kids to go up or down as they get older, but I do have one personal experience I can share that relates.
My older child was tested as a 3rd grader, as all students in our district are. At the time they used OLSAT and now they use CogAT, but those are fairly similar if I understand correctly. When he took OLSAT in 3rd grade, he scored in the 93rd percentile (cutoff in our district is 96th for both academic and intellectual/reasoning tests). Then, to our surprise, last year in 5th grade our son was nominated for testing again by our school's GT teacher, for potential entry into the program as a 6th grader. That time, he took CogAT and scored in the 98th percentile. Big change and suddenly a qualifying score (he did not qualify on the ITBS tests, but we were surprised at the increase on the other side). I did a little research on CogAT and found that it is a learned reasoning/problem solving test. I chalked his gain up to an additional two years of education and push in the high groups in his classes, plus maturity, plus a better ability to gauge what the most "normal" answer would be on certain questions (we suspect his avid reading of above-level texts and outside-the-box thinking may have contributed to a lowered verbal score the first time around).
Anyway, that's just what happened to us. I suppose it could also be that there's some test prep going on in your area, when parents realize their kids aren't getting in on their own the first time around. Or maybe the quality of education in your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes is just that good, and by the time they're doing ITBS academic tests that last year, they're extremely well-prepared. Just some ideas. I have no professional experience in this area.
Last edited by melissan; 02/02/18 06:25 PM.
