Q. What are the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the California Achievement Tests?
A. The ITBS and CAT are group administered achievement tests. These commonly used tests examine to see if a student has mastered
academic material commonly taught at a specific grade level. For example, if your child takes the 3rd grade ITBS and scores at the
95+% level - all you really know is that your child scored better than 95% of all the other 3rd grade children who took that test
nationally. With this score in hand you can rather confidently say that your child has mastered 3rd grade curriculum material.
However, it is impossible to know just how far ahead, if at all, your child may be from 3rd grade material, unless you go back and
have your child take a higher grade level ITBS.
At the same time, if your child is in the 20% or lower rank on a group achievement test, then it's clearly probable that your child
has not mastered the academic content for that grade level. Again, you won't know how far behind the child is because the test
has only measured knowledge for one grade level. Keep in mind, that group tests have their flaws and some children score low on them,
not because they don't know the content but because they're hungry, bored, restless (these tests can take up to 6 hours), not interested
in taking the test, or because they're coming down with the flu. A well-trained educational tester will look for outside factors
that may negatively influence a test session. Should it appear that a child is hungry, overly anxious, or too tired to continue, then the
test session should be rescheduled for another date at no cost to the parent.
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