Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments HSers - do you do achievement testing?

Yes, a single morning is DEFINITELY preferable. Yegads! The ITBS does take up the time. That's the big reason I'm not wild about testing him twice. It really is a big time sink.

I guess I figured that by the time you get to the Explore or the ACT or whatever, then of course you're going to give it to him more than once. That seems okay, especially for an 8yo. It's the ones with a specific grade level that throw me.

Hmmm...Still thinking about this. Maybe I have limited my options unnecessarily...

When my child was first grade age I gave him the 2nd grade CAT. I did the out of level testing because I wanted to learn something from the results. A bunch of 90+ %iles would tell me nothing. As it turned out I didn't learn anything of value anyway. That was a surprise. I really expected it to be more challenging for him.

Friends have told me that the CAT is the easiest of the nationally normed tests. Many prefer the IOWA instead. This year we may do the SCAT (out of level for a talent search).

Of course, I don't have to give test results to anyone, so I didn't choose the test/level from that perspective... just for our personal info... YMMV.

Kate

It's always good to have that info for educational planning purposes. I haven't had either child take the SCAT, but others here have.