Ask an Expert: Jim Cox and Pat Puleo
Measuring Up: A Parent's Guide to Testing, Grades, and Assessments

My first-grade daughter normally gets straight A's, with scores in the upper 90%. But on the SAT-9, she scored in the 88th percentile in reading—except in Word Study Skills, where her score was 63%. Her math and other scores were all in the mid to upper 90s. I'm wondering what Word Study Skills are, and how I can help her raise her score.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the SAT-9 tests, so let me give you some background information. SAT-9s show how your child compares with other children in a pre-selected "norming group" that took the test in 1995. It's very important to understand that the percentile is not the percentage of items she answered correctly. With a score in the 63rd percentile, your child scored as well or better than 63 percent of the students in the norming group, and not as well as 37 percent. The test is designed so that a student performing at grade level scores within a rather wide range around the 50th percentile. California has chosen the 50th percentile as "grade level."

The "word study skills" portion is designed to test a student's ability to use phonics to decode words. Phonics is just one method people use to read words; others include whole-word recognition, contour of words, and context clues. If your daughter's comprehension score is high (and it is), she's most likely reading well, and that's what counts.

Few schools give the SAT-9 to kindergarteners or first-graders, because there is a greater chance of student error on this type of measurement with young children. Parents and teachers alike need to keep these test results in perspective and review other formal types of assessment, such as Running Records and Informal Reading Inventories, which give excellent evaluative information on a child's reading ability and skill development.

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