My DS6 recently had a reading assessment at school and received a percentile of 82. I'm not sure about the name of the test, but it involves reading a passage from his grade level (grade 1) and then answering questions. The teacher thought he would score higher so she tested him with a grade 2 test. He received 84th percentile. She then tested him with the grade she thinks he sits at, grade 5, and he received 85th percentile! Why is this happening? Why does he have as much difficulty with very basic books as he does with a novel?

It's not clear to me whether this was an age-normed instrument, a grade-normed instrument, a criterion-referenced instrument, or a curriculum-based assessment, and whether you are actually reporting percentage or percentile results. Thus, I'm not ready to assume that he has as much difficulty with easier books as he does with difficult books.

If this were an age-normed instrument with different possible start points (grade 1, grade 2, grade 5) on the same test, then it would make perfect sense that he performed at the same percentile regardless of start points. No matter where he started the test, he would be compared to other children his age (or possibly his grade), so he would continue to fall at the same relative performance level. That is, he performed better than 82 out of 100 children HIS AGE would be expected to perform on the grade 1 test, 84 out of 100 HIS AGE on the grade 2 test, and 85 out of 100 HIS AGE on the grade 5 test. This would not mean that he had the same number of right answers on grade 5 as on grade 1, since presumably other six-year-olds (or first graders) also received fewer correct marks on the grade 5 test than on the grade 1 test.

If she used the respective grade norms to determine these percentile scores, that would be different. That is, better than 82 out of 100 FIRST GRADERS, and better than 84 out of 100 SECOND GRADERS, and better than 85 out of 100 FIFTH GRADERS.

Oh, and I should note that many of the assessments or placement tests associated with common reading curricula have negligible psychometric power. Meaning they're not very reliable measures of actual reading ability.

Do you know which of these situations, if any, applies?

It's an assessment that is normed against the grade. So the first grade text and questions, and then the answers are compared to first grade and given in percentiles (I did write that in my post). The fifth grade text and questions, and then answers were compared to fifth grade answers. So, yes, respective grade norms to determine the percentile scores.

Is it possible that texts at his level were simply more engaging and motivating? My son's math scores go up amazingly when you give him math many grades above his level (which his school refuses to do, argh). He's a C student when forced to follow grade-level math curriculum, though.

My son scored higher with above-grade-level reading material than at-grade, normed against kids one-grade-above, and it was noted on his report that it was likely due to being more engaged by higher level material.

Thanks. I see that.

Do you know if the scores were based on reading comprehension (questions) alone, or if oral reading accuracy and rate were also included? I ask because, if the student is a fluent reader of grade 5 text, but not a speed demon (which I find to be the case with some very good readers, who read with clarity and expression, rather than blazing through without regard for the audience), he will not necessarily be any faster on grade 1 text than on grade 5 text, past a certain point. Nor will he be any more accurate, just because the text is easier (there is, after all, a ceiling on reading accuracy for fluent readers!). The same applies to pretty much all aspects of oral reading. So if, for example, the composite score is mostly based on oral reading, and only a smaller fraction is derived from the comprehension questions, I could imagine a scenario where the score changes relatively little from grade to grade, because text difficulty matters more for other children than it does for him.

I also agree that the level of engagement is another possible factor.

No testing on speed, etc. Purely just comprehension questions. I would think that of he could score so well for a fifth grader then why isn't he getting 99.9% on the first grade? He is a very good reader, so I do believe they're accurate. I'm just confused about the first grade results.

Hm. I wonder what he's getting wrong. Is there a difference between performance on literal and inferential comprehension? Is there a specific way they expect him to answer (perhaps based on the curriculum)? How many raw score points separate 85th and 95th %ile? How low is the ceiling on the test?

I know you may not know or have access to most of these answers, but these are the kinds of things I'd want to know.

Yes, aeh, I was going to ask a similar question about inference! It was around 7 or so that DD was being held back a bit to "work on" inference, because they were the questions she'd miss on reading tests, although I couldn't fathom why because she understands everything. Then I had the bright idea of pointing out to her that inference questions were basically "take a good guess" questions and that she was allowed to guess those ones! Bless her, she hadn't been answering them because the answer wasn't there in the text in black and white and she was too honest to just infer the right answer

I am having exactly that problem with ds6!