Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Does anyone know how to get SAI out of this?

Hi! My DD9 has been id as gifted and talented using her Mastery Testing and the OLSAT...

The pricipal will only tell me her percentage. It was a 93%...I expected much higher, but she did say she didn't finish.

Can anyone tell me how to figure out how to convert the 93% to an actual SAI number?

I don't know how to do the conversion, but you should be able to request a full copy of your dd's records from the school - where/how you make the request depends on the school district, but chances are there is more info available to you than what the principal has told you. You might start by asking the principal to fax you a copy of her full report.

polarbear

The tests were hand scored by the principal and I think he didn't do any caluculations other than the percentile...I could MAKE him do them, but I guess the district doesn't have enough money to buy the program that scores the tests, so I feel bad asking him to go back and do more after he gave up his Thanksgiving Vacation to score them...I was hoping I could figure out more, but I can't find anything online about the conversion. I really do think she should have scored higher than that. Her achievement so far has been consitantly in the 99%...hmmmm

OLSAT's got a mean of 100 and an SD of 16. Google says 93rd percentile has a z-score of 1.4758, and that times SD = 23.6. So about 124.

(Bear in mind there's a lot of rounding error in converting from a round-number percentile back to a score.)

wow...is that about what her IQ would be based on that test...that is WAY lower than I expected. Uggg...plus, how would someone with an IQ of 124 and a just about perfect state mastery test be considered gifted? Only 7 kids out of 140 were identified and we live in a 'smart' district. There must be way more than 7 kids with IQs over 124....

Her WJIII put her at 99.6, plus the REALLY good CT ST Mastery Test, I would expect higher...

Ugh, I was hoping to get what I expected and not have to pay for testing, but now I have even more questions...seems her achievement might be higher than her potential...lol

The OLSAT isn't an IQ test. It is an ability test.

Accuracy

The fact that the OLSAT is easier and less expensive to administer than an IQ test, such as the Stanford Binet V or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, makes it more accessible; but its accuracy at higher levels is less reliable.[1]



The Otis�Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT), published by the successor of Harcourt Assessment � Pearson Education, Inc., a subsidiary of Pearson PLC � is a test of abstract thinking and reasoning ability of children pre-K to 18. The Otis-Lennon is a group-administered (except preschool), multiple choice, taken with pencil and paper, measures verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning ability. The test yields verbal and nonverbal scores, from which a total score is derived, called a School Ability Index (SAI). The SAI is a normalized standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 16. With the exception of pre-K, the test is administered in groups.

Uses in education

There are seven different levels of the OLSAT designed for use from kindergarten to 12th grade. The OLSAT serves several purposes: it provides a marker for measuring individual year-to-year progress; some teachers may find it helpful for inferring individual educational needs; and for some school systems, it serves as an economical way to widely assess gifted and talented candidates in the early years.

The Level A OLSAT, the publisher�s lowest level, is designed to assess school abilities of kindergartners (up to a level of "above average"), but it assesses areas that are not universally taught (i.e., it does not assess reading and math abilities). Some educators use the Level A test to assess preschoolers, but, for three-year-olds, require only 40 of the 60 questions. For four-year-olds, all 60 questions are given. Scoring is measured against peers in age groups of 3-month bands. For example, children born October 4 through January 4 are compared with each other and children born January 4 through April 4 with each other and so on.

Our school uses the OLSAT for G&T screening, and the score they use to determine whether you met the cutoff is [actual score + standard error of measurement]. SEM when my DD took it was a bit more than 5, and our school uses a cutoff of 128. So in our district, she'd qualify for G&T services based on that score.

If your district requires qualifying scores in both OLSAT and achievement testing, that would account for the low percentage being screened in.

I guess two of the 7 kids id'd got 99% on the test. So, what I'm hearing is that this test will test to "above average" but not 'how above average'...it does seem safe to say though, that the kids who scored 99% on this test are "smarter" than my dd with 93%. Well, she did make "the list" and hopefully will get the differentiation needed to stretch her mind.

The poor kid though, she aces the pre-tests in Math and gets "enrichment" projects to do instead....this month she is making a game for the rest of the class to play...with decimals...I just feel like she shouldn't make games, she should move on in the curriculum....

but, she likes making the games, so ..

Thank you for all your help...

If she didn't finish the test, then the number really isn't very useful for assessing her ability. Not finishing might be a red flag for processing issues or for perfectionism, though. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't put too much stock in this number and would look at getting full testing elsewhere, if you need it.