Category: School Readiness

Posted on

2e Students: Questions To Ask Your Child’s School

If your child has been tested and given the 2e designation, you may have many questions about what that means and how to help them. You may also want to know how to determine if the school you chose to send them to is equipped to handle their special needs. 

We understand that, so we have pulled together some of the information that will be helpful as a parent of a 2e student.  

2e Student – What Does It Mean?

When you hear this term, it may be something foreign to you. Perhaps you are more familiar with the phrase “gifted with special education needs”. 

These are students who have a gift for certain subjects but have been diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, or any of several learning disabilities. Such children are also known as “twice exceptional”, hence 2e. 

How They Are Identified

The government has laws that are put in place to protect students that are identified as disabled. School districts across the country must assess children to see if they fall into the twice-exceptional category. 

Unfortunately, the funding is not always there, so teachers are often the first people who recognize the signs that your child might be 2e. It will take more than one test to determine your child’s standing regarding this assessment. 

Ways To Help Your Child

No matter what your student is dealing with (ADHD, dyslexia, etc.), there are ways that you can help them in unison with the staff and educators at the school. Making sure to stay in communication is one of the best ways to help your child. 

Another way is to encourage your child to make friends with other 2e students. This will allow them to build relationships with other children who share their challenges. 

Question Checklist

  • What is your definition of a gifted and talented student? 
  • When are gifted and talented students evaluated for identification? How do you measure it? 
  • Do you have a particular program for twice-exceptional (2e) understudies? 
  • What kind of guidance do you offer for 2e students? 
  • Do you have instructors who are trained to handle 2e children? 
  • What improvement exercises do you offer for gifted children? 
  • Do 2e children regularly have access to accommodation via an IEP or 504 plan? 
  • How would you offer emotional support to 2e kids? 
  • What assistance do you offer children who are flourishing in certain areas and struggling with others? 
  • How would you propose to utilize your 2e student’s abilities to deal with challenges? 
  • Do you have any assets to assist me with figuring out how you support 2e kids? 
  • How am I able to assist you in understanding my child’s needs? 

Concluding Thoughts

Once you have a good grasp on all the information and what to ask, you can better make sure the school has the right systems and tools in place to help your 2e student. Hopefully, all this information has been helpful.

Posted on

Opportunity Gap: What You Need to Know

early American public schools

The opportunity gap exemplifies the manner in which factors like socioeconomic status, race, family conditions, and other important variables work hand-in-hand to create anti-intellectual impressions and attitudes in specific groups of students. In turn, this results in very low academic and soft skills levels, further reinforcing a sad cycle of generational lack, which led to the opportunity gap in the first place. Hence, the perpetuation of this unfaltering generational cycle continues.

In the K-12 setting, the opportunity gap is most frequently defined in a person’s life and for children from lower-income families. By the time a kid begins school, they can already be two to three years behind their wealthier peers in terms of school readiness and learning. If not addressed, the gap can broaden over time and impact future opportunities to approach certain career paths or further education. In a community, college is where the impacts of an opportunity gap might become most obvious. Often, a college degree serves as an equalizer, irrespective of an individual’s background. However, the opportunity to attend college becomes unattainable for many. Family obligations, lower rates of high school graduation, and the huge financial burden of college tuition are only some of the crippling aspects for numerous students. The opportunity gap adversely impacts many people long before they get the opportunity to enter their preferred career. This generates a broader gap between what can be accomplished, even for individuals working and living in the same place. This results in policies, companies, and entire industries failing to have the diverse contributions that foster an equitable community and workplace. This can develop a two-tier workforce, where employees are evaluated based on circumstances that are completely outside of their control.

There’re lots of reasons to strive to close the opportunity gap. When children get better academic opportunities, they get the chance to accomplish their career aspirations and options to create their most satisfying lifestyle. This creates an improved quality of life, enhanced earning potential, and developments within their communities. Closing the opportunity gap will help lower certain beliefs and stigmas that have adversely impacted some communities. The opportunity gap also runs parallel to some other social inequities and can even act as their source. If addressed properly, closing the opportunity gap will certainly help bridge the other gaps. Individuals can volunteer their time and search for mentorship opportunities to help peers at work or students in their community.

Posted on

A Guide to Student-Led Conferences

This typically refers to a form of parent-teacher meeting where students take the floor, giving vivid updates to their parents on their learning process and progress. The reports tell the kind of learner each child is and how personalized learning has worked for each of them.

Student-led conferences offer several benefits. First, this kind of meeting format promotes collaboration between school and home. When a student explains what has occurred by way of academic success or lack thereof, it minimizes the opportunity to assign the responsibility to teachers or parents if the student isn’t succeeding. Also, placing the onus on a student to explain their progress helps build the accountability and responsibility necessary for them to sustain or improve academic success.

The student needs to reflect on what is required to achieve academic success or discuss what they need or must do to improve. Another key benefit of these conferences is the skill of goal development that a student must employ to start the process. When the student sets goals, they likely take a personal interest in monitoring and achieving them.

Educators can institute student-led conferences in different ways depending on the class size, layout, and structure of the school. However, regardless of the format used, there’re two key elements that should always be present.

All participants (student, teacher, and parents) need to understand their roles clearly for these conferences to be effective. Students need to facilitate the discussion, demonstrate their work, and communicate their learning objectives with parents. Teachers act as a mediator between students and parents. They also need to take some time out to prepare students for these conferences. Parents should come prepared to talk with and listen to their children. Schools can use newsletters to inform parents about student-led conferences in detail and their role.

The student portfolio is a key component of effective student-led conferences. Portfolios might vary depending on the format of a conference, but they generally include a selection of a student’s work from throughout the year, sheets for setting academic and social goals, and an agenda for the conference. Students should also be encouraged to present sample work they aren’t satisfied with and explain how they might have done better. They can also find examples of areas where they improved their performance during an individual project or unit. Teachers can set aside time regularly throughout the year to help students select the work they’d like to present at the conference.

Posted on

Registration: Everything You Need to Know

This is a procedure that enables the enrollment of students for specific courses or modules required for them to graduate an academic term. It’s important to note that registration and enrollment are two different actions. Registration refers to the systematic process that helps eligible students reserve seats in particular classes. Enrollment refers to the completion of the registration process and provides the privileges and full rights of the student status. It’s accomplished by the payment or other fulfillment of tuition and fees, and by fulfilling other obligations to the institution. Registration alone doesn’t guarantee enrollment, nor does it assure the right to participate in a class. In some instances, students need to get the approval of a representative of the department offering the course or the course instructor. The privileges of the institution aren’t available to any student until they have completed enrollment. A student who isn’t officially enrolled in a course may not attend the course.

The registration process involves several steps that students need to take. New students should take the time to familiarize themselves with the school’s website. Identifying the sections for registration, financial aid, and alerts or messages is important. Returning students should clear any blocks or holds on their student accounts, which may mean paying unpaid tuition or fees. Students with registration holds may not be permitted to register until the right office or department clears the hold.

Students can select their desired courses by visiting the online schedule of classes available on the school’s website. Degree-seeking students should choose courses that match their academic plans. Depending on the type of the course and level it’s offered, students should expect to devote a few hours each week for each registered credit.

When it comes to financial aid, students need to understand that loans have to be paid back, but scholarships and grants don’t. A student may also need to schedule a meeting with their academic advisor to map out certain classes they should sign up for. Students should do some research on their own to ensure that they’re fully aware of the options and opportunities. In some schools, the registration process can get pretty competitive for certain modules or courses. Therefore, setting a registration period alert is a wise decision.

If students are waitlisted for a course, it’s a must to monitor emails or student accounts frequently. This is because as soon as an opening becomes available, a student may receive an email or notification directing them to return to the registration system and complete the enrollment process within a designated time window.

Posted on

Using Structured Comprehension to Improve Children’s Reading Fluency

A reading comprehension strategy that moves from concentrating on sentences to paragraphs. This framework provides learners with proper contextual info, corrects any incorrect cues in the sentences, answers any questions learners may have about the sentence, and asks learners questions to clarify the content further.

Structured Literacy prepares learners to decode words in an explicit and systematic manner. This tactic not only helps learners with dyslexia, but there is substantial evidence that it is effective for all readers.

The many challenging problems for learners with dyslexia is learning to read. Sadly, popularly employed reading tactics, like Guided Reading or Balanced Literacy, are not useful for struggling readers. These tactics are ineffective for learners with dyslexia because they do not concentrate on the decoding skills these learners need to succeed.

What works is Structured Literacy, which prepares learners to decode words in an explicit and systematic manner.

The Parts of Structured Literacy Instruction

Phonology: is the study of the sound structure of spoken words and is a vital part of Structured Language instruction. Phonological awareness involves rhyming, counting words in spoken sentences, and clapping syllables in spoken words. An essential facet of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness, or the capacity to segment words into their component sounds, which are named phonemes. A phoneme is the tiniest unit of sound in a given language that can be seen as being distinct from the other sounds in the language. For instance, the word cap has three phonemes (/k/, /ă/, /p/), and the word clasp has five phonemes (/k/, /l/, /ă/, /s/, /p/).

Sound-Symbol Association: Once learners have developed the awareness of phonemes of spoken language, they should learn how to map the phonemes to symbols or letters. Sound-symbol association must be taught and learned in two directions: visual to auditory (reading) and auditory to visual (spelling). Moreover, learners must master the blending of sounds and letters into words as well as the segmenting of whole words into individual sounds. The instruction of sound-symbol associations is often known as phonics. While phonics is a component of Structured Literacy, it’s integrated within a rich and deep language context.

Syllable Instruction: A syllable is a division of oral or written language with one vowel sound. Instruction involves the teaching of the six fundamental syllable types in the English language: closed,vowel-consonant-e, open, consonant-le, r-controlled, and vowel pair. Knowledge of syllable types is an essential organizing idea. By knowing the syllable kind, the reader can better establish the sound of the vowel in the syllable. Syllable division rules sharpen the reader’s awareness of where a long, unknown word  may be divided to aide in reading accuracy.

Morphology: A morpheme is the tiniest unit of meaning in the language. The Structured Literacy curriculum involves the study of base words, roots, prefixes, and suffixes. The word instructor, for instance, contains the root struct (which means to build), the prefix in (which means in or into), and the suffix or (which means one who). A teacher is one who instills knowledge in his or her learners.

Syntax: Syntax is the set of principles that decide the sequence and function of words in a sentence to express meaning. This involves grammar, sentence variation, and the mechanics of language.

Semantics: Semantics is that facet of language concerned with meaning. The curriculum starts must involve instruction in the comprehension of written language.

How Essential Skills are Taught in Structured Literacy

Systematic and Cumulative. Structured Literacy instruction is systematic and cumulative. Systematic means that the organization of content follows the logical order of the language. The sequence must start with the many fundamental ideas and parts and progress methodically to challenging ideas and parts. Cumulative means each step is based on ideas formerly learned.

Explicit Instruction. Structured Literacy instruction requires the explicit teaching of all ideas with continuous learner-educator interaction. It is not assumed that learners should instinctively deduce these ideas on their own.

Diagnostic Teaching. The educator must be adept at personalized instruction. That is teaching that meets a learner’s needs. The teaching is based on continuous assessment, both informally (for instance, observation) and formally (for instance, with standardized measures). The material presented must be mastered to the degree of automaticity. Automaticity is vital to freeing all the learner’s attention and cognitive resources for comprehension and expression.

Posted on

The Edvocate’s Guide to Thematic Units

Thematic Unit is defined as the arrangement of a curriculum around a particular topic or theme. It is otherwise defined as a series of lessons across the curriculum that are all connected to the main topic of the unit. These lessons incorporate subjects like maths, social studies, language, reading, art, science and others. This means that the major focus of each exercise is on the topical idea. A thematic unit is much more than just picking a topic as there is a wide range of options to choose from, like the solar system, mammals or Australia. A thematic unit can be planned weekly, just like what most teachers do while others prefer to plan theirs for two to nine weeks.

Reasons for Thematic Units

•             It boosts students’ interest

•             It helps students to appreciate connections

•             Enhances assessment method

•             Students are kept engaged

•             Compacts the syllabus

•             Since it integrates all subjects, it helps to save teachers time

•             Uses connections from life and real world experiences

Major Elements of a Thematic Unit

There are eight major elements of a thematic unit. Adhere to the guidelines below when creating your own classroom’s thematic unit.

1.            Topic: when choosing a theme/topic, consider students’ interest or experience and common core principles.

2.            Grade Level: ensure that you choose the appropriate class

3.            Goals: determine the particular goals you want to achieve during the course of the unit

4.            Materials: decide the materials you will use all through the unit

5.            Activities: develop all the activities you will use for your unit. Ensure that you cover exercises across the syllabus/curriculum.

6.            Discussion Questions: to help students reflect on the theme of the unit, develop different discussion questions centered around the topic.

7.            Book Selection: ensure that you choose different books that communicate the theme of the unit and all the activities involved.

8.            Assessment: assess students’ progress all through the unit. Test their understanding and growth using a scoring guide (rubrics) or other standards of assessment that you know.

Tips for Creating a Thematic Unit

Below are three tips that will help you when creating a thematic unit for your classroom.

1.            Find an Engaging Topic

Topics can be planned around the interest of students, skills they need to improve, books or benchmarks. Go for themes that will inspire and grab your students’ attention. Units are usually longer than one week, so finding themes that will keep the students on their toes is very crucial.

2.            Develop Fun Exercises

The core of every unit is the activities/exercises you select. These activities should not only keep the interest of students but they need to cut across the curriculum as well. Learning centers are one of the nice ways through which students can acquire important skills and gain experience.

3.            Examine Students’ Learning

Examining students’ understanding is just as important as finding a central topic and creating engaging activities that cut across the curriculum. A portfolio-based evaluation is an effective way to assess students’ improvements throughout the unit. For instance, a portfolio can be created for a particular unit like habitat and the improvements made by the student all through that unit are recorded in the habitat portfolio.

What did we miss?

Posted on

A Guide to Community-Based Learning

Community-based learning refers to various teaching methods and programs that educators utilize to connect what is being taught in schools to their surrounding communities, including local institutions, history, literature, cultural heritage, and organic environments. It is also motivated by the belief that all communities have intrinsic educational assets and resources that educators can utilize to enhance learners’ learning experiences.

Proponents of community-based learning generally argue that learners will be more interested in the subjects and ideas being taught. They will be inspired to learn if educational study is connected to ideas, issues, and contexts that are more familiar, understandable, accessible, or personally relevant to them. By utilizing the “community as a class,” advocates argue, educators can improve knowledge retention, skill acquisition, and preparation for adult life because learners can be given more opportunities to apply learning in practical, real-life settings—by researching a local ecosystem, for example, or by volunteering at a nonprofit organization that is working to improve the world in some meaningful way.

While the methods and forms of community-based learning are both sophisticated and numerous, the concept is perhaps most readily described in terms of four general approaches:

Curriculum connections: In this type of community-based learning, educators would make explicit and purposeful connections between the content being taught in the class and local issues, contexts, and ideas. For instance, the workings of a democratic political system may be described in terms of a local political process, statistics and probability may be taught utilizing stats from a local sports team, a scientific concept may be explained utilizing an example taken from a local habitat or ecosystem, or the Civil War may be taught utilizing examples and stories drawn from local history. In this scenario, learners may still be educated within the school walls, but community-related connections are being used to enhance learner understanding or engagement in the learning process.

Community amalgamation: In this approach, educators take advantage of local experts by inviting them into the school to give presentations, participate in panel discussions, or mentor learners working on a research project. The school may also collaborate with a local organization or group to provide learning experiences in the school—e.g., a local engineering firm or scientific institution may help the school create a robotics program or judge science-fair projects. In this scenario, learners are still being educated within the school walls, but community resources and authorities are being used to enhance the learning experience.

Community involvement: In this approach, learners would learn, at least in part, by actively participating in their community. For instance, learners may undertake a research project on a local environmental problem in collaboration with a scientist or nonprofit organization; participate in an internship or job-shadowing program at a local business for which they can earn educational credit or identification; volunteer at a local nonprofit or advocacy campaign during which they conduct related research, or they may interview doctors, urgent-care professionals, health-insurance executives, and people in the community without health insurance to learn about the practical challenges faced when attempting to expand health-care coverage. In this scenario, learners are learning both within and outside of the school walls, and participatory community-based-learning experiences would be connected in some way to the school’s educational program.

Citizen activity: Some experts and educators would consider this approach to be the fullest or most “authentic” realization of community-based learning—learners not only learn from and in their community, but they also utilize what they are learning to influence, change, or give back to the community in some meaningful way. For instance, learners may write a regular column for the local newspaper; research an environmental or social problem, and then create an online petition or deliver a presentation to the city council to influence local policy, or volunteer for a local nonprofit and create a multimedia presentation, or short documentary intended to raise awareness in their community about a particular cause. In this scenario, the audience for and beneficiaries of a learner’s learning products would extend beyond educators, mentors, and other learners to include community organizations and the general public.

How to Implement Community-Based Learning In Your Class

Community-based learning is thought of as a way for educators to enhance their ideas by connecting them to individual, first-hand experiences and accessible examples. Community-based learning is typically positioned as an alternative to traditional forms of learning. Learners may read about people, places, or events they have never experienced or ideas that can only be understood abstractly.

Although community-based learning seems to work just fine, some educators are calling for it to be reformed. In this article, we will discuss why.

War is a common idea taught in history class. However, it is not something that most American learners commonly experience—and, consequently, the effects and implications of war may not be fully felt or grasped. A community-based approach to teaching learners about war might entail visiting a war memorial that lists the names of soldiers who died in combat, researching how a particular war affected their local community, or hosting discussions with a veteran’s group or a recently arrived refugee who relocated to the community from a war-torn area.

Community-based learning is also promoted to develop stronger relationships between the school and its community while also increasing the community’s investment in, understanding, and supporting the school and the learning experiences it provides. For instance, school-reform proposals may be met with skepticism, criticism, or resistance from the local community, particularly if they are misunderstood or misinterpreted.

If a large percentage of community members are involved in the school’s new approach to educating learners, participating community members would not only have a stronger understanding of the strategies being implemented and of why the new teaching approaches are being adopted, but they would also be able to help community members better understand its potential.

Debating the Pros and Cons of Community-Based Learning

Like any school-reform strategy that necessitates major changes in how schools operate and learners are taught, community-based learning can become the object of debates. Many people, including educators, may express concern that community-based approaches will “water down” courses, that learners will fail to acquire foundational educational knowledge, and that test scores may drop.

Parents and community members might express unease because the approach looks different from the more familiar school concept they are accustomed to. Logistical issues and complications, and safety concerns, may also arise since learners may leave the school grounds for certain activities. They may have to utilize public transportation. They may be taught by adults who are not educators.

Educators may express skepticism or resistance because community-based learning can complicate school schedules and mandate more planning and creativity, increasing educator workloads or resulting in teachers not being given the planning time and training or resources they need to learn and utilize community-based approaches efficiently.

In its more advanced forms, community-based learning can also mandate coordination between the school and outside organizations and people, which can have both financial and human-resource implications. In many cases, schools recruit parents or community volunteers to coordinate programs to reduce school personnel costs or burdens.

Advocates argue that community-based learning needs to be skillfully designed in schools—doing too much, too quickly, without a strong plan and sufficient training for educators can greatly increase the likelihood that problems will arise.

They also argue that even though community-based learning can mandate more from schools and educators—more funding, more planning, more work, more professional development—the benefits are well worth the investment: learners will be more excited about learning, they will learn more, and they will be more able to apply what they have learned in real-life settings.

What did we miss?

Posted on

The Edvocate’s Guide to Achievement Growth

Academic progress is accomplished over a period and assessed at the onset and end of a specified time. It can be calculated for countries, states, cities, schools, or learners, and many variables and strategies can be used to decide if “growth” has occurred.

Achievement growth refers to educational progress made over time, as measured from the beginning to the end of the defined period. Achievement growth can be tracked and decided for personal learners, schools, states, or countries. A broad variety of variables and methodologies may be used to decide whether “growth” is being achieved.

Achievement growth is tracked and calculated to decide how efficiently or how quickly learners, schools, states, or countries are improving, and “achievement” is most commonly measured utilizing standardized-test scores—although other measures, such as graduation rates, can be included in certain methods or reports. Achievement growth is usually reported in a comparative format.

Achievement growth is also paired with school reform in various ways, usually by utilizing achievement growth as a factor when making essential decisions about schools or educators. For instance, educator compensation or job security may be based in part on achievement-growth measures, or schools may be subject to penalties or negative publicity if they fail to achieve expected growth levels.

When investigating achievement-growth statistics, it is essential to decide precisely how growth was calculated since a broad variety of factors—such as length of the measured period, the calculation methodology and tests that were used, or the size of the represented learner population or subgroups—can produce significant variation in results.

For instance, a school may experience a dramatic or atypical drop in standardized-test scores one year, which will have a much bigger effect on perceived achievement growth if it comes at the end of three years instead of ten years. An atypical drop in test scores would skew the perception of growth if it came at the beginning of three years since it would seem that the school made gains, but the growth may be based on a statistical abnormality.

Is Achievement Growth an Education Reform Strategy?

Since achievement-growth statistics are usually used to assess the effectiveness of education systems, schools, or educators, they are motivated by a desire to improve educational quality. For this reason, the statistics could be labeled as a reform strategy since there would be no need to track, calculate, and report achievement growth if the status quo were considered acceptable. Achievement-growth metrics are either used to make the case that improvement is needed or to equip education leaders, policymakers, and elected officials with the information and arguments they need to improve results.

There has been an emphasis on and attention to growth-related measures in America in recent years. In general, the attention is based on identifying that a school, state, or country may be well behind another state, school, or country. Still, reforms could be introduced that accelerate improvement in others. For instance, a school located in a high-poverty urban community may begin with standardized-test scores that are much lower than the scores in suburban schools in wealthier communities.

Still, despite facing significant disadvantages, the urban school may improve scores at a much faster rate relative to its suburban counterparts. Given that educational achievement can be influenced by factors outside the control of the school or education system, the basic idea is that growth-related measures are a more reliable and useful indicator of how a school or system is improving or of how they are addressing and overcoming factors that may adversely affect achievement.

Also, by looking at the schools and systems that are achieving greater and more rapid growth, the reasoning goes, education leaders can find reform strategies that will work for their district.

Posted on

A Guide to Percentile Ranking in Education

When people take standardized tests like board exams and college admissions tests, a set of scores are usually released, along with a report. Certain institutions may require percentile scores to qualify for admission or to determine whether a student will qualify for some type of grant or assistance.

Young students will most likely be required to take achievement tests at a certain point in their schooling, and exam scores will most likely be presented in percentile rank.  

Percentile rank scores provide a picture of a child’s ability relative to his or her peers. It can help parents determine their child’s abilities and areas where they will need help.

What are Percentage Scores 

These are the scores that a student will receive after taking a test for a class. It gives a glimpse of student’s understanding of a subject matter. Percentage scores are usually computed by dividing the number of correct answers by the total number of questions in the exam.

Percentage scores are limited to providing information about an individual student’s performance in one exam whereas percentile ranks provide some form of comparison between the student and his or her peers.

What are Percentile Ranks

When a student takes a standardized test, the results are presented in percentile ranking format. Percentile rank scores are important because they provide insight regarding how a child performed compared to other students who have taken the test. With standardized tests, it’s not so much about how many correct answers were made; it’s more about gauging where the child is at compared to the entire population of students that took the same test.  

Standard scores have an equivalent value in percentile. For instance, having an SAT score of 1200 means that you are in the 75th percentile. This means that you are part of the 75% percent of students who scored 1200 or lower. This is considered a good score.

Intelligence tests and cognitive abilities tests also provide scores in percentile ranks. Instead of focusing on the standard score, focus your attention on the percentile rank to determine how well you perform alongside others who have taken the same test. 

How Percentile Ranking Scores Are Used in the Education Setting

Standardized tests usually include components like verbal reasoning, reading comprehension, and reasoning. Scores from these tests can provide educators with valuable information about the needs of a student upon being enrolled in their institution. Educators can formulate interventions or even recommend special assistance for students who may need it.

Final Thoughts Percentile rank scores provide relevant information about the ability of students. These scores usually come from standardized and norm-referenced tests. The scores give an idea as to how a student ranks in comparison to his or her peers. These test results, although seemingly intimidating, can be interpreted using a manual.

Posted on

A Guide to Age Equivalent Test Scores

Also known as mental age or test age, age equivalent test scores have been hotly debated upon by educators and psychologists. What does it mean, and what happens if a child’s score does not match his or her actual age?

The Difficulty of Establishing Criteria

Children that are born within a given six-month period are put in one group. A sample of test scores from each group will be chosen to represent this age group. The age equivalent score is determined by taking the mean test score of the group and using that as the point of comparison for each age group.

Some experts have expressed concerns about this. Test design and interpretation are very difficult and should consider factors such as a child’s test-taking ability, the context, content, and standard of error.  Age-equivalent tests do not show the nuances of mental ability in the way that an aptitude test would. Simply focusing on the age group is a bit lacking. It can cause confusion and distress among parents.

Interpretation of Results of Age Equivalent Scores

Do not panic if the result of your child’s test does not match their age.

If your 8-year-old child has a score of 7, it doesn’t mean that your child is underperforming. On the flip side, if your child’s score is 9, it doesn’t mean that they are smarter than the group. The test that your child took is designed for 8-year-old children, with test questions that are specific to their grade level, covering topics that have been discussed in their classes. If your child’s score is higher than their age level, do not assume that they could handle content for older children.

Grade Equivalent Test Scores

Similar to age-equivalent tests are grade-equivalent tests, which are given to determine whether a student can handle the content that is meant for their grade level. Two children from different grade levels can have the same score. If your second grader has the same score as a third-grader, it doesn’t mean that your child can handle the third-grade curriculum.   

Final Thoughts 

It’s normal for parents to get anxious about test scores and ranking, especially when their child is still young. Do keep in mind that the age-equivalent test score is but one of the many tests that can provide a picture of your child’s mental ability. Always be mindful that the nature and validity of age-equivalent tests are up for debate in the first place. If you want to understand test scores and the types of tests that could better show your child’s abilities and potential, please consult professionals.