As a 3rd grader she would have shone brightly but as a 4th grader she is middle of the pack (slightly below in Maths) which does not reflect her abilities at all ( except that she needs to work on her exam technique).
Middle of the pack for 8th graders as a 4th grader -- or middle of the Talent Search pack-- is nothing like middle of the pack for grade-level testing.
Agreed! I think you should be very proud, especially since she is managing to do this well as a very young fourth grader!
Also, your DD is getting fourth grade instruction, every day. She is learning more advanced material than the typical third grader, every day. Yes, our DDs will perhaps suffer a tad when grade-normed, but when using an age-normed assessment, your DD will shine.
Perhaps a Woodcock-Johnson Ach. test periodically would give you a better assessment? I believe those are age-normed.
We have experience with NWEA MAP testing. Again, these are grade-normed. The good thing about MAP, though, is your DD will obtain a RIT score. You can utilize the RIT score within various grades (using MAP charts) and get an idea of what percentile they would fall into in those grades.
Still, even with MAP, talent searches tout above-level tests as a superior measure. I will be curious to hear what the talent searches plan next. I imagine they have a strong interest in seeing some similar testing continue.