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

At our school, the 2002 test scores in reading and math were low at the third and fifth grade levels, and high at second and fourth grade. Why might this be?

There are several possible factors. One is that a portion of the tests was the SAT-9. That?s a national test, and the test company tries to hit as many states? curricula as possible. The alignment with the California curriculum may be off for third and fifth grades.

It?s also possible that your school?s second and fourth grades do have higher quality programs, or that those grades contain more students who test well. It only takes a small group of high-scoring kids?or a couple of particularly good teachers?to make a difference, especially if there are only a few classrooms per grade level.

It?s also possible that the national norming group for the third and fifth grades did especially well on the test, making your school?s students compare less favorably. (See prior column on related topic.)

Let?s say that, try as hard as the test publishing company does to get a representative sample, the norming group for a particular grade really doesn?t represent national achievement levels?it included higher achievers. When an average-achieving student in that grade takes the test and his results are compared to the norm group score, it will look as though the student is below average when he really isn?t. The problem is that there is no way to know for sure when that has happened.

For these reasons, we advise parents to keep track of their child?s daily classroom work, but not to get overly concerned with the percentile scores that come out of the norm-referenced group tests, especially when comparing a student?s results from one year to the next.

TOP OF PAGE | BACK TO ARCHIVE INDEX