Okay, so the other day I was looking into this whole Iowa Assessments thing, ’cause I got this kid, right? And they’re gonna be taking these tests soon. I wanted to figure out what these scores actually mean. So, I started digging around.
First off, I found out that these tests give you a bunch of different scores, and it’s kinda like, “What the heck does all this mean?” You got your Standard Score, your Grade Equivalent, your Percentile Rank, and probably some others I’m forgetting. It’s a lot to take in, for sure.
So, I started with the Standard Score. Apparently, they take the raw score from each section of the test, you know, like how many questions your kid got right, and they turn it into this Standard Score. It’s supposed to tell you where your kid stands compared to other kids. I think the scores go from, like, 80 to 400.
- I also checked out this thing called the Grade Equivalent. It looks at your kid’s score and then sees what grade level that score would be average for.
- The result is something like, your kid is in 4th grade, but they have a GE of 6.7 in math. And, that’s the average student in the indicated level might score on the test.
- It was said that the scores range from K.0 to 13+.
- The letter or number indicates current grade (K = Kindergarten, 1 = 1st grade, etc.) and the following decimal indicating a particular month in that school year.
Then there’s the Percentile Rank. This one’s a bit easier to understand, I think. It basically tells you what percentage of kids your kid did better than. So, if your kid’s in the 90th percentile, they scored better than 90% of the other kids who took the test. That sounds pretty good, right? The scores are from 1-99.
They also use these scores to see if your kid is, like, “proficient” or “advanced” or whatever. They have these cut scores that they use. If your kid’s score is above a certain number, then they are proficient, and above an even higher number, then they are advanced. I guess that’s supposed to tell you if they’re, you know, doing okay in school or whatever.
I went down this whole rabbit hole, looking at all the different subjects they test on, too. It’s a lot!
- Reading
- Language
- Math
- Vocabulary
- Spelling
- Word Analysis
- Listening
- Social Studies
All these subjects for different grade levels. They test different things depending on how old your kid is.
Anyway, I just wanted to share what I found out. It’s a lot to process, but I feel a little better knowing what these scores mean now. Hopefully, this helps some other parents out there who are trying to figure this stuff out, too. It’s a wild ride, this whole school thing!
