Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion EXPLORE TEST

It seems a little weird that reading scores would be so much different than English. One would think they are closely correlated. Does anyone have some insight?

I think the reading is an indication of "close reading," i.e., can they interpret text and use it to make inferences about what's happening or going to happen in a story.

English is grammar.

Got it. So could this have to do with a 4th grader not having enough exposure to 8th grade reading material?

DD had just taken the EXPLORE before she was WISC tested. I actually asked the tester about why DD's English score might be so much higher than Reading. She was not concerned. She said something along the lines of the Reading questions sometimes being arbitrary.

DD reads constantly. I was actually surprised at the time that Reading was not DD's highest score (instead, English was).

IMO, I think it's more a matter of whether they are mature enough to interpret the "correct" answer. You can find sample questions online if you want to see what types of questions she had to answer.

Since I know nothing about Explore, take this with a grain of salt.... but I can say that inferencing and related skills are still pretty weak in grade 4s: developmentally, reading what the text doesn't say is a skill that grows over time and requires explicit teaching for many kids. For example, my DS's grade 6 English teacher, in a gifted class, has explained to me that a significant portion of the kids in the class struggle hugely with inference and making textual connections, and this is normal.

So based on the many conversations I have been having with grade 4 and 6 teachers this year about the age of readiness for these specific kinds of tasks, it makes sense to me that so many of you report younger children doing much better on the clear, rules-based part of the Explore than the inferencing et al bits.

We received our test scores on Saturday as well. Not what I expected!! DD12 (6th grade) did much better than I thought she would. She did well (though not DYS high) in math and science and rhetorical skills (English) Her lowest score was reading. Actually the reading score did not surprise me as she is a mathy kid and not labelled gifted in language arts.

I'm not sure what to think about DD10 (also in 6th, grade accelerated). She has now taken a 3 year above level on the Iowa test and this Explore test which, if she is age-wise a young 5th grader and school-wise a 6th grader, is Explore a 2 or 3 year above level test? Science was her strong point on the Iowa, but not on the Explore. Reading was her best on the Explore.She does not like being tested (she very grudgingly took this test!!) and is ADHD inattentive. I was hoping to get a sense of where she is, but I don't know if this gives me a clear picture of what's in her head. My biggest surprise was that her sister received better scores than she did knowing what DD10's WISC score is.

Greenlotus if I understand right you expected your DD10 to do better than your DD12 on the test. Is that correct? I am not sure this would be the case. Unlike WISC the EXPLORE is not an IQ test but a knowledge test. So age and maturity probably have a major role to play.

I would have the same overall assessment on the DYS numbers for EXPLORE. The numbers have probably been created based on the same percentile expectations as of those on WISC. But because of the age issue I suspect hitting the percentile on EXPLORE in younger grades is rarer than on the WISC. Hence the issues of DYSs not hitting the numbers in EXPLORE.

Thank you for helping put this into perspective.

I am surprised that the rhetorical score is so much higher than the mechanics on the English portion. Then again, he may have been flying through the mechanics part and overlooked some key details. It's been known to happen...

Given that your DD10 didn't want to take the test, her results may show that she wasn't that into it...

My understanding is that it is normally taken by 8th graders at the start of the school year, so it would be two years above grade level (roughly) for a 6th grader.