Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SCAT question - silly but I know someone will help

I was able to get my DS8 (second grade) SCAT scores online today, so I don't have the information that explains the scores/percentages. I know this is a dumb question, but is the percentage supposed to mean of the people who take the test (which I assume is a fairly bright subset of the general population), or is the percentile normed in some way (I am not using the term norm correctly here, I guess I mean shifted) to reflect a percentile score among the general population. Am I making any sense here?

I'm proud of him, he did well and qualified without any issues, but more importantly tried hard even though he was really nervous going in (the people at the test center were nice, but it was alot for a just 8 year old to have to show empty pockets, sign himself in and out, etc).

Cat

Just adding to what Dottie said: The percentiles are compared to the norming sample for the above-level grade. So the percentiles for a 3rd grade child are compared to the 5th grade norms.

Having said that, I felt like the percentiles ought to be taken with a grain of salt. The test is short, and I don't know how accurate those norms are anymore.

At any rate, when you get the booklet, you can get a rough idea of your DS's percentiles compared to the other talent search participants in his actual grade. I say a "rough" idea, because the bar graphs are the data from the previous year and I would imagine that they change somewhat from year to year. Unfortunately, they don't give you those percentiles. You actually have to add up the numbers and calculate it yourself.

Thanks so much. He was in the 97% in the quant. and 80% in the verbal. So it is safe to say that doing regular second grade math with his peers is not going to do the trick - the question is, does it show that even 3rd grade math would likely be too easy? Or are we unable to draw that conclusion due to the limitations of the test?

I really appreciate the help - this is the first objective evidence I have that he is more then a "pretty bright kid." It is kind of nice to have my subjective opinion supported, but now I need to do something to help him - before I was afraid I was just being a nudgy parent (although I really haven't been too nudgy yet).

He is taking the WISC this weekend, which will of course help flesh all of this out.

Cat

Thanks Dottie. I decided to bite the bullet and email his teacher and ask that we meet to discuss the scores - even though we don't have his WISC yet. I want to see what the school can suggest for him (math in fall was a wreck, but in Dec. he started being pulled by a special teacher with 9 other kids for a small group of advanced kids in math - same material, and he still said it went too slow, but much better compared to before - I just found out the small group is being ended yesterday, the same day we got the SCAT scores). I would love love love if they would let him do CTY or EPGY online at school on his own, but I don't think anyone has ever done that before - I am pretty sure a subject acceleration wouldn't really address the issue which is that he absorbs the concepts incredibly fast.

Cat