Parents want what’s best for their children. As I wrote in my previous article, the motivation for testing, in addition to complying with state law, is to know how their children are doing academically. In light of President Trump’s decision today to suspend this year all requirements for end-of-the-year standardized testing, the question now is,…
With the feelings of panic and uncertainty we’re facing with the Coronavirus, you’d think the last thing parents would be wondering about is required achievement testing. Many of you, though, are thinking about it for a good reason. Educators use achievement testing to do more than simply comply with state law; their primary interest in…
Very few students like to be evaluated or tested for a simple reason. It bothers them to be wrong! And, if we’re honest, it bothers us too. That’s because we often see our children as a reflection of our academic and parenting efforts. It may explain partly why some parents experience difficulty in giving their…
Remember how you felt when you took your driver’s test and heard the words, “You passed!” You probably didn’t care by how much or what your score was. Even being told “You barely passed” was probably OK with you since you got what you wanted- a license to drive. With achievement tests, it’s different. On…
It’s one thing to know and have mastered the academic objectives for a particular grade level. It’s another thing to be able to demonstrate this knowledge on a test. So, how do you help your child do his or her best on their next achievement test? One option is to buy a book of drills….
Many students are scheduled to take, or have already taken, some form of an end of the year test. For many it was likely a nationally normed achievement test. Some families only tested at those years required by their state’s law. Their aim was compliance and making sure their students “passed the test.” Other families…
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…