A great line from the movie, The Princess Bride, by Inigo Montoya to Vizzini’s use of the word, inconceivable is “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. “ Test results are subject to interpretation. They don’t always mean what we think they mean. A number of years…
Many parents get a wake-up call when the results of their child’s achievement test suggest the curriculum they used let them down. In other words, if your child flew through their curriculum easily yet did poorly on their achievement test, the question is why? What, if anything, went wrong? Was it test anxiety or poor…
What starts out as “good advice” often morphs into this is “God’s design” or “God’s way.” At least that’s the way we hear it. In last week’s article, I suggested three “tones” you could employ when correcting your student. Before I relate a story in which a “firm tone” was employed, one that made a…
In our series, Testing 101, I started with some suggestions on how to prepare your child for a successful test experience. I followed that up with some articles that explained how to understand and use the scores found on the Basic Report. In this article, I’ll make a suggestion about how to communicate and use…
The most meaningless test score is perhaps the most important one. It depends on its use. Once the raw score (the number right out the number possible) is determined, it is then converted into this score. Apart from the raw score, this score is the most important one because all the other scores like percentile…
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you needed to act as if you understood something when the fact is you knew you didn’t get it? I think most of us will admit to this. Sometimes we find ourselves in a conversation where we feel the need to nod our heads in…
I think very few of us are what you call “numbers people.” Most people when they finished algebra 1 or algebra 2 in high school, or college math for that matter, had no intention of ever returning to it “just for fun.” Why? Because it lacked relevance and usefulness to their life. NCE (normal curve…
Most car insurance companies offer high school students a discount if the student can prove he or she is academically “above average.” The standard to qualify for the discount is a “B” average on the student’s transcript. The creation and maintenance of a high school transcript is one of the features and benefits of our…
Most homeschoolers compute raw scores every week. They are the result of scoring spelling tests and simple math tests in which the items are either right or wrong. With the answer key in one hand and your student’s work in the other, you determine how many items were answered correctly. The raw score represents the…
If you’re like me and you’ve just been assessed or evaluated in some way, you’re probably wondering, did I do OK? That’s likely the case when it comes to receiving your student’s achievement test results too. The first question often asked is, “Did he or she pass?” Once this question is answered, it’s quickly followed…