Gifted and Iowa Basic Skills Test

[alexsam]

So, I'm curious. Here is the scoop. My son is 6. He is a "young 6" as well for his grade (b-day in late August, so he could have actually been in kindergarten). We've always known something was "different", we've talked to some experts in gifted education who suspect somewhere in the highly gifted range. We have not yet had him tested.

He also goes to a very "out of the box" Montessori elementary school. We're comfortable with their program, but as part of an effort to "just show" parents that their kids are in the ballpark of grade level, they give the Iowa test. The school does not prep the kids for it, they don't really do anything with the scores, they just do it to have some sort of "objective measure" (meaning "See? Our kids/you kid is at grade level even though we do things very differently and spend only half the day on traditional academics...")

DS scored high on math and some other things (like, 90th percent tile?) and others were lower, despite the fact that I see that it doesn't match up (for example, reading and vocabulary was around 50th, but he is 6 and reading fluently).

How do you guys feel about the test? Do you think it has been accurate for your kiddos?

[Roar]

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in it. He's quite young and he's not had a traditional education. The Iowa for his grade level is looking at readiness for elementary school subjects. If he's already a fluent reader he may have had no interest or understanding of the activities on the exam as at that level they are more focused on isolated skills - recognizing letters, identifying words, etc. Also, I would assume the test sample group had more experience with being tested - something that fortunately is not a focus at Montessori. It might be helpful to read the description and purpose of the test here: http://www.education.uiowa.edu/itp/itbs/itbs_about_5-8.aspx

[RiverTam]

Our Montessori does the same thing with the Iowa Basics I would expect that it is an accurate measurement.  INMO, the Montessori curriculum is far superior for math, science, social studies, history and critical thinking skills. I haven't been impressed with the way they teach reading, though. If it were my kid, I would think it's an accurate measurement of his relative strengths. A kid may be decoding fluently and not comprehending at the same level. Our school doesn't teach reading as a separate subject after the primary level and doesn't drill for comprehension. Especially if the child is bright, it would be easy for him to slide by on superior decoding skills.

You can drill for the type of reading comprehension that the Iowa Basics tests for. There are tons of workbooks that offer short reading passages and questions about the reading. I do reading workbooks with my kids in the summer when our Montessori school is out. 

[ChristaN]

I don't have experience with that young of a child taking the ITBS, but my oldest was given it in 3rd grade.  Like your ds, she was young for grade with a late August bd, so 8 at the time.  She did well -- 99th percentile on everything except math, where she was in the low-mid 90s.

I do think that it is read aloud to children in 1st grade whereas my dd read it to herself in 3rd.  I don't know if that would have anything to do with it.  I guess that I'm saying that, in our instance, it was a fairly accurate measure and lined up with other testing we had, but that's no guarantee that it was the best test for your ds at this point.

[TiredX2]

I think the ITBS is generally considered very accurate for what it is--- an achievement test.  It makes no claims at diagnosing giftedness or abilities, though.  For our local program, the kids take the ITBS one year ahead as their achievement portion.  I've known several people to take it multiple years and it does fluctuate based on what they have learned/done in the past year unlike an ability test which you would expect to be more stable.  That said, of course it depends on the child understanding and taking the test and I know that the one given for K & 1st is very frustrating for many fluent readers (meaning it is also testing your listening ability, not just languange, reading, or...).

You posted this in Parenting the Gifted Child, so were you looking for information about ITBS performance and giftedness?  You might want to ask about this in Montessori.