Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Achievement testing in a pre-K child

Our tester just gave us a score sheet with age equivalents not grade equivalents. His age equivalent for Broad Math was 8-4 and his Broad Written Language was 6-8. Even though the Total Achievement and Broad Reading did not have standard scores they did have an age equivalents listed at 7-3 and 7-2 respectively.

It seems he is 2-3 years above age level based on the WJ-III. His IQ testing gave age equivalents 2-4 years above age level. I am thinking K will not be the right place for him in Sept '08.

I don't have the age equivalents just grade equivalents.

8-4 would be towards the end of 2nd grade, wouldn't it? I think I am getting more and more confused about the tests.

Dottie how does it work with the scores? Is there a difference if you base the results on the age of the tested child or if you base it on the grade? It depends on the age regardless, doesn't it? DS was 5 and 3 months when tested on WJ-III and it seems like there is quite difference between being 5-1 and 5-3.

Was your son already in K when tested? Could that have made a difference?

Thanks for looking Dottie!

It is very hard testing kids this young. I think that's why my tester didn't like that the score were so high. She understands about DYS and was happy that we got qualifying scores but I completely understand that the actual numbers aren't as important. I know my son is bright. I know he knows more than an average 5 year old. I am satisfied with the results.

It will be interesting to see how he scores a few years from now. That will be more accurate of his strengths and weaknesses.

This makes perfect sense and that's what I thought. If this wasn't true I would be really pulling my hair off.


You mean that I would get different results using the same test scores if I normed them against my son's age than if I normed them against his grade? (I would still get the same GE but different scale and %) I would probably get very different scale numbers? That's insane. I mean the same child, the same raw scores, the same GE but different numbers?

It makes me wonder if the psychologist based my son's scores on grade since crisc mentioned that the tester couldn't put the grade equivalent in and had to use the age. Looking at our numbers it's probably the case: 2 months of age difference, a huge scale difference and 9 months in GE just don't add up. If you talk about 5.1 and average K then it's a different age story.

I am not hunting for higher numbers, I really am not. I just want to get a clue how things work. It's my math/logic background talking. I need to know how things work I assumed that the test was based on the age only and gives only one result but 2 different scales ... This makes it even harder to compare any results.


Honestly, the only thing which matters right now is the DYS score. The school cares about GE anyway. I assume the numbers will come down and I better not to even think that age wise his numbers could have been most likely much higher. That would probably freak me out I am scared about his school future as it is.

crisc, wouldn't it be lovely to get our sons together? I think they would have lots of to talk about

fwiw, DS was given the WIAT-II last year and the pyschologist could calculate scores compared to both kids his exact age, and kids in his exact grade position. I suppose if your child isn't in a grade yet, they only can compare to the same age.

Congradulations Crisc!What a relief to have the scores you knew were 'in there.'

I'm sorry that you had to get the painful report about his writing. I think a little 'hothousing' on writing is in order, and you can certianly ask her for ideas. I also would be sure to sit in on a normal 1st grade class and see how much writing is expected - it may be much less than he had to do on the test. Writing seems to be that last skill to catch up, because I think, it is so common for the expectation to be high, and the brain to be wizzing. It reminds me of typing emails on a number pad of a cell phone. I find myself picking my words really carefully, and my quality drops!

See if you can get more details on what caused the tears, but I wouldn't rule out a first grade placement. I'm still of the opinion that if a skip is needed, the sooner the better. Grade skips are perfect because the development is so asynchronous, but a little hot housing and some honest talking goes a long way, IMHO.

Smiles,
Grinity

crisc - I wouldn't rule out 1st grade placement either just based on some of writing of little boys on the wall I see outside my son's 1st grade class! Much of it is NOT pretty!

Kumon has some really good stepwise handwriting workbooks out there that my kids have done for fun.

Crisc,

My DD was reading 4th grade level when she started 1st grade. However, since she had never attended school, writing her name was all the writing she could do. She caught up rather quickly and it was never a problem. So go for that 1st grade placement, I don't think 1st graders are expected to know how to write.

When my DS started K his handwriting was no good at all. He could write letters but his own way, you know writing line the opposite direction. I never bothered to correct that, silly me. Also he had no idea how to write on the lines, his letters were all over the place. Pretty soon I heard that he needed lots of work on his fine motor skills. It took me a while to explain them that he was 5 after all and it didn't matter how much he could read or count, he had hands of a 5 year old.

That said his handwriting has improved dramatically in last few months. He writes slowly but he writes pretty good letters, even his teachers say so now. A year ago he would type on the computer most of the time, now he mostly writes.

I think your son will be ok. Let him write shopping list for you, list of things to do, thank you cards, letters to grandma ... He goes to Montessori, right? Ask them if they could give him more handwriting practice. You have plenty of time till September.