Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WIAT question?

Hi, I'm trying to explain something to my husband and I can't seem to get it right. My son, when he was 11 years and 1 month, took the WIAT. His age equivalent on all subtests was >19:11 and his grade equivalent in all subtests was >12.9. Now, I know that this means he scored as we would expect someone older than 19:11 would score given the same tests and as we would expect someone with more than 12:9 years of school to score.

So, what, exactly, does it mean? Does anyone have a good, solid, simple explanation or example that I can use with my husband? He keeps insisting that it means nothing (and maybe that's what it does mean) and I'm frustrated that I can't explain it.

What does it tell us about him?

That he's probably quite far ahead of his classmates... probably not ready to jump straight to college, hah, but he's likely bored by grade-level work if he' sin 6th or 7th grade.

He's in 7th grade, taking Algegra I (a 9th grade class) and 8th grade band. I think he's definitely ready for harder science but this year they are doing "life science". It's okay but most of what I have seen is busy work. They do get to dissect a shark, though, so he's excited about that.

Grade equivalent should mean that of students at that grade taking the same test half score above your kid's score and half below.

With an achievement test that is grade specific, that loses some meaning because they extrapolate the equivalencies. A higher level test would likely include a different range and style of questions. e.g. An achievement test for a twelfth grader might include some trigonometry questions.