The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

The Bell Curve
Norm-referenced Tests (NRTs) are designed to compare student
performance to other students
all students taking test

Average

TIP 2: Chart your child’s academic scores to determine growth or regression. You can use grade equivalents, percentile ranks, and standard scores. Make sure you are comparing the same tests and/or test equivalencies, or that the tests you are comparing measure the same information.

Below average

0

50
Scores in Percentiles

100

Bell-Shaped Curve

to measure and describe relationships between variables using numbers. For example, you can look at your monthly gasoline cost and determine how much you spent, on an average day, each day during that month. Then, you can use that information to determine whether it would be worthwhile to carpool, ride your bike more often, or continue your current driving pattern. If you decide to ride your bike two days per week, you can measure change by comparing your car’s gas usage and cost for the previous months versus future months. In a similar way, knowledge about test scores will help you assess your child’s progress or lack of progress.

Let’s start with the term Grade Equivalent (GE). The raw score is the number of correct answers on a test and is converted

Where do I go to
determine if my child
has a learning disability?

into a grade-equivalent score. The grade-equivalent score is the grade level of students who, on the average, obtain that same raw score. For example, if a third-grade child receives a raw score of 10 points, and children near the end of first grade on average earn a raw score of 10 points, the third-grade child is assigned a GE score of 1. 9 or the ninth month of first grade.

However, this doesn’t mean you can
conclude that the third-grade child has
math skills that are identical to those of
a student at the 1. 9 grade level. This child
may have completed addition with re-
grouping problems and single-digit mul-
tiplication problems but did not answer
any subtraction problems. It is more ac-
curate to say that the child demonstra-
ted some second- and third-grade math
skills, beyond those expected for a first-
grade child, but overall performed on
the average as children at the end of first
grade performed. So, grade equivalents
provide an assessment of overall, approx-
imate, grade-level achievement, but one
must analyze the errors and patterns to
fully understand the child’s strengths and
skill deficiencies.

Q. What is a late bloomer, and
what does the research say about
“catching up”?

The term late bloomer was created about thirty years ago and was an affectionate term for a child who mastered reading skills at a slower pace than did his or her peers. The idea was that children would bloom when they were ready, or their brains would mature, which may be later than their peers matured. As a teacher in the early 1980s, this common view was a reasonable basis for teachers to have patience with slow readers and justified the common practice of delaying a learning disability diagnosis until it was severe (Lyon et al., 2001). 1

Over the years, parents and teachers have asked, Do struggling readers ever really catch up? The research has

The Social Times

The Social Times, Vol. 4 is a great resource for educators and professionals looking to help students develop social skills. Each issue contains activities and discussions designed to help children cope with social situations.