to those reading this message, it has been awhile since I have been on this site, so please bear with me if i am out of sorts with what is happening.
Our son recenlty before the close of this years school was administred the Stanford Standerizied 9 Test, his scores were terrible. When asked why they were so bad the school seems to make up excuses for why he could of done bad. Our son has been in their “system” since he was 3 for speech. It has takken us many IEP’s and years of testing to finally come up with the problem he suffers from CAPD. That is only the tip of the iceberg…it has many off shots that make up many more learning disabilities. We are learning so much from both the advocate we hired to the lawyer we were sure would help us. NOw our son is moving on to high school, we have chose a technical high school. My question for those who can help, either with life experiences or teaching experience is this when do we have concerns with this stanford testing and how do we incorporate the information into his IEP? Its a part of our son someone should take seriously. Please lend me some of your experiences.
thank you
R
Re: Stanford 9 testing
I have been extremely concerned about this topic myself. Some of my son’s scores are terrible as well. And every other year we not only get the national percentile rank, but we get a local percentile rank as well. The local is a reflection on how he fits in with his actual peers. My son’s local percentiles are anywhere from 1st percentile to 8th percentile for reading, math and spelling. He is basically swimming with sharks in his gen ed classroom for the basics. He just finished 4th grade.
I tried to ask the sped director about these scores, we were told the same thing; it is not an accurate picture of him. I asked, well, for the testing you take him out into a small group, lift the time restrictions and read him the test and he still bombs in certain areas especially reading and spelling. Yet in science and social studies he is in the 80th and 91st pecentile (nationally) and the 42nd percentile locally. What’s going on?
I wanted to use these scores to show lack of progress under their plan of direction in special ed. On the IEP they use teacher observation to report his progress. Very subjective method of reporting. I wanted something concrete to compare it to because I was not seeing progress as a whole and wanted to back it up. They tell me the Stanford 9 testing is not important, don’t worry about it.
But, me being me, I take it two steps further. I go to the website that explains all of the testing (www.eddata.com/tsserv.htm) and here’s the definition: Stanford 9 is the newest edition of one of the most respected achievement tests. To respond to the changing needs of today’s educators, this new dition offers you levels of flexibility, customization, and access to information never before available with a national achievement test. Everything you could want in order to shape Stanford 9 to fit your needs is easily acceptable, without compromising the instrument’s long-standing tradition of integrity and technical excellence.
So, basically the school taylors it to their needs, yet they still will not accept accountability for the results.
I then went and talked to the person in charge of this testing in our district. I asked her what the purpose of the testing is and of what value is it to parents (she says to measure year to year progress).
She tells me that as long as accomodations and modifications were made for LD students (just like any other testing they would be given in school) then the LD child’s results are just as accurate and valid as any non-disabled child. But she did back it up with the “test scores are not the final answer, we have to consider everything else” statement. I said, well these scores are very consistent with how he is performing in the classroom even with special ed services.
I told her that the principal told me that they don’t really look at the local percentile ranks, she said his statement is false. She says it is a very good indicator as to how a child is performing in his current environment. She also said that their statement about him not being a good test taker is not accurate. She said that if he were a poor test taker, he would not score in the 80th and 91st percentile in some areas; he would have bombed across the board. She says that they consider the tests to be important and valid, otherwise they would not administer it. And said I should not accept their responses to my questions.
Our discussion was very enlightening and the discussion on this topic WILL continue in the fall.
Having gone through this with the school, I feel that it is truly an issue of accountability. They became very uneasy and did not like discussing it. Since they will not give me any concrete, objective measure to help monitor my child’s progress, I want to use the yearly achievement test along with grades and the subjective opinions of progress I get from the teachers. I will not ignore this like they want me to. If it doesn’t mean anything then they should not be torturing these kids with it, right?
Keep pushing for answers and see what you can dig up. I think it is a very valid concern especially since you have a high-schooler. Thats what they look at for placement in jr. high, high school and then testing gets you into college.
Do they really think that parents are stupid and buy their excuses?
Re: Stanford 9 testing
Well, it’s unfortunate how often they do get stupid parents and they do get away with it.
Kep up the good fight.
It is obvious that your school is simply not teaching your child to read. This is a proven fact. At this point, having given them four or five years and all those meetings, I think it’s time to give up on the school’s approach and get someone else to teach him. You may want to keep him in schol for other things, but just ignore their reading stuff. He can’t get any worse! This would take a lot of stress off both you and the child.
Rachel,
The Stanford 9 is probably not a good measure of your son’s abilities because it is administered in a group rather than an individual setting. A much more accurate measure would be something like the achievement portions of the Woodcock Johnson, which is administered one on one and which can help to pinpoint exactly where your son is falling behind. The Woodcock Johnson is usually given as part of a comprehensive evaluation for learning disabilities.
Andrea