Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment 6th grade Explore score predicts 7th grade ACT?

My son took the Explore test in February as part of the Duke TIP program. He did pretty well, scoring 22, which puts him at the 98th percentile for eighth graders.

His reading score was quite low, only 19, I think perhaps a reflection of a low processing speed. The WISC-IV that he took a couple of years ago put him in the 33rd percentile for processing speed. I think we can work on this with him to get his reading score up. I think reading is the easiest score to raise through practice and test-taking techniques.

Now for my question. Anyone know the correlation between Explore scores and ACT scores for early testers? Does a sixth-grader who makes a 22 on the Explore have a reasonable chance of making a 27 on the ACT as a seventh grader? I haven't been able to find any information. Any anecdotal information?

Thanks.

Congrats on the scores!
I don't have any specific info, but 6th grade isn't too young to take the ACTs, and 7th grade is a 'classic' time to take them to qualify for talent search. You can also buy a 'test prep' book for ACT and there will be 'practice tests' in there you can try at home.

With 33rd precentile for processing speed some practice and test-taking study seems like a good idea. There are many reasons for scoring low on speed - some can be improved with practice and other don't much improve. The only way to know is to try.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Does the report for the WISC that showed the low processing speed give any support for the idea that he might need extended time on tests? If so, you may be able to get testing accommodations based on the processing deficit, if the documentation is recent enough. If the problem is actually slow processing, then extended time may help.

Low processing speed scores can also be indicative of problems with tracking and convergence, visual processing, visual-motor integration, attention, or fine motor skills, all of which can affect performance on these kinds of assessments, and all of which typically respond well to the appropriate therapies. Have these sorts of problems been ruled out?

I have to say the only problem the processing speed problem seems to have given my son is in the taking of IQ tests. He was given a screener for the gifted program at his new school last year, the Cog/At, and scored in the 81st percentile. When I later read that this test was heavily weighted towards processing speed I asked that he be given another screener. He was given the Ravens for children aged 5-11 even though he had just turned 12 a week before. He made a perfect score, which would indicate a non-verbal IQ of 130-plus.

But, then he was given the Reynolds and got a verbal IQ of 136 and non-verbal of 105 and ended up being rejected for the gifted program, which did not make me happy one bit.

But anyway, on typical achievement tests he normally scores in the 97-99th percentile in both math and English. I suspect the processing speed is causing some problems with the reading section, but I'm not sure we could get extra time, since the school doesn't recognize him as having any problem.

I thought I would provide an update.

My son got his Duke TIP ACT score back today. He had a 24 composite. His reading score was only 22, while on a practice test he made a 28. He made a 26 in science, and we never took a practice test on that. That was higher than I thought he would do. He had a 22 in math; since he is enrolled in algebra I thought he might get a 23 or 24.

Overall a 24 is a very good, although not great score. It's just a bit shy of what is needed for national recognition, just as his Explore test was. But the real question is can he improve by eight or 10 points over the next five years? My best guess is that he will.

I wish they would get 1,000 or so random 7th graders to take the ACT so you could get a true percentile score report back!

Random as in "not talent search kids"? I'd guess it would be a curve centered around a point not more than 3 points higher than what you'd get from random guessing.

Random 8th graders take EXPLORE, and average a bit below a 15. Talent search mean increases by a bit more than a point a year. So random 7th graders might get a 13 or 14 on EXPLORE. Assuming that translates to a 13 or 14 on the ACT, you're looking at 5th-10th percentile compared to 7th grade talent search kids. So I think you'd get less meaningful percentiles - your kid would be in the 99+ pool, right with many of the other talent search kids.

Non-random 12th graders get a 21 on the ACT, so you'd expect maybe 7 points of growth in 5 years. I'd anticipate a highly gifted kid to show more growth than that.

My dd took the EXPLORE test through Duke TIP in January and we don't have her scores yet...should I enquire?

Other thread reports "we're going to be mailing those no later than 3/2."

thanks

I wonder why it takes a while. They're scanned electronically, so it's not the grading. I suppose it's looking for anomalies and figuring out the norms?

DeeDee